4-Day Weather
compiled by Morgan Weeks and Sarah Jessop
Thursday, February 5, 2009
THURSDAY
■ -m 45
30 :
{The Blue Banner}
FRIDAY hi-
52
30 i-
SATURDAY
55
35
Page 3
SUNDAY
58
33
Student body re-examines insurance
By Cassady Sharp
Assistant News Editor
CBSHARP@UNCA.EDU
Full-time UNC Asheville students can
no longer count themselves as members of
the swelling uninsured club, whose enroll-
tnent recently reached 47 million Ameri
cans.
“One of the biggest growing popula
tions of uninsured Americans are the col-
Icge-age population. The health insurance
requirement is part of a national trend
providing college students with afford
able health insurance,” said Jay Cutspec,
UNCA’s director of Student Health and
Counseling Center.
Nearly 30 percent of 18-to-24-year-
olds remain uninsured, according to a
2007 Census Bureau report.
Beginning last fall, UNCA required
^bll-time students to purchase the univer
sity health insurance if they were not al
ready covered. The university’s provider,
Fearce and Pearce, specializes in student
insurance.
“Pearce and Pearce was chosen by the
CNC system as a whole a few years
^80,” Cutspec said. “Chapel Hill and
NC State are the only two that do not
use it.”
The annual charge for the school’s
insurance is $612, which financial
^id can cover.
“You’re looking at a $1,100 annual in
surance plan if you opt out for something
like Blue Cross,” Cutspec said. “25 per
cent of our students were uninsured, and
most of them purchased the Pearce and
Pearce plan.”
Hannah Drum, 19, just enrolled in the
student insurance because her state insur
ance expired when she turned 18.
“I am here to find out if they will cover
my eye doctor bill and going to the den
tist,” said the Maiden native, while wait
ing in the Student Health Services Center
in Weizenblatt Hall.
Pearce and Pearce covers outside medi
cal treatment, but only if student health
services issues a referral. The plan does
not cover treatment such as regular check
ups, eye examinations or regular dental
care. The insurance plan
will cover treat
ment for injury to
natural teeth. '
“Pearce and
Pearce does not
cover routine
health care. There has to be a problem,”
said a customer service representative for
the AIG subsidiary.
Nearly 25 percent of the full-time
UNCA population enrolled in the student
health insurance last fall.
Only 9 percent enrolled for the spring
semester, but this decrease is most likely
because students have not renewed their
coverage online. Online renewal at Pearce
and Pearce’s Web site is required for cov
ered care for the spring semester.
“I can’t afford health insurance at all,
not even the school’s insurance,” said Ra
chel Lawless, a biology major. “I am go
ing to school part time and working until I
can afford it.”
Nearly 2,000 full-time students waived
the school’s Insurance for their own plan.
Many of these plans are part of a
family plan which expire when
the students graduate.
“My parents wanted to
make sure my insurance would
last long enough if I took a
semester off to do the Appala
chian Trail,” said Megan Chalk,
an art and education major. “The
insurance under my parent’s plan
See Insurance Page 5 I
Pro-anorexia
group forms
on Facebook
By Rhys Baker
Staff Writer
RDBAKER@UNCA.EDU
A pro-anorexia group on Facebook
sparks a debate of free-speech, sensitiv
ity and safety.
The mission statement of the group
is: “motivate friends to refuse food im
mediately!”
The group’s membership climbed to
nearly 500 while a group called Faee-
book to Remove Pro Anorexia and Bu
limia Groups enrolls more than 4,000
members.
According to Dr. Amy Lanou of the
Health and Wellness Department, an
orexia is a mental illness characterized
by rapid weight loss, inability to retain
weight and a distorted body image.
Often fatal- and l|ard to diagnose, the
illness afflicts many high-risk groups in
cluding youth, domestic abuse victims,
homosexual men, heterosexual women
and those whose careers require a spe
cific body type, she said.
“I definitely had to change my eat
ing habits,” said Ian Shannon, UNC
Asheville junior and 2006 N.C. wres
tling champion, about the weight control
practices of his high school wrestling
team. “There’s a lot of pressure to be at
the right weight.”
Wrestlers are susceptible to eating
disorders because of the strict diets that
they undertake, according to Shannon.
“Preparing for the wrestling season
is tough,” Shannon said. “I generally
weighed 15 pounds less in season.”
The pro-anorexia side argued that
freedom of speech grants them the right
to promote the disease.
“I have seen pro-anorexia Web sites
before,” Lanou said. “There are anorexic
support groups that help people perpetu
ate self-destructive behavior.”
They also argue that those who op
pose the group should ignore it since
See Anorexia Page 5 I