The current work of the GSC Healthcare Advocacy Committe is to engage in ongoing negotiations with the University to ensure that graduate students’ healthcare remains affordable, comprehensive, and meets the needs of students and their families. Our committee is the direct liaison between the graduate student body and Stanford Health Services. Got questions? Need answers? We got you covered.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Contact the GSC Healthcare Committee Chairs
Sjoerd de Ridder (ridder at stanford.edu)
Dependent Healthcare: Hanna Popick (hmuenkeat stanford .edu)
Dependent Healthcare Announced starting Fall Quarter 2010
Information regarding dependent healthcare through cardinal care can be found here:
http://vaden.stanford.edu/insurance/2010_overview.html
The Quarterly Vaden Fee
The Healthcare Advocacy Committee and the newly formed Vaden Advisory Committee are actively exploring other options in hopes of reducing the recently announced $167 quarterly fee, applicable to all registered students on the main campus beginning Sept. 2009. We encourage all those who have constructive ideas to participate in this effort. Some students are eligible to wave this fee. For more information regarding this, see the following website:
http://vaden.stanford.edu/fees/campus_fees.html#nofee
______________________________________________________________________________________________
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
FACULTY AND STAFF INVOLVEMENT
- Provost: John Etchemendy, etch@csli.stanford.edu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
- Vice Provost for Student Affairs: Greg Boardman gboardman@stanford.edu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
- Vaden Student Health Services Director: Ira Friedman, ira.friedman@stanford.edu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
- Vaden Student Health Services Assistant Director: Amy Baldwin, abaldwin@stanford.edu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE VADEN FEE AND TIME LINE
2009-10
The University announced in February 2010 that there will be a dependent health care plan offered by Stanford, which will begin September 1, 2010. Information about the plan is available at http://vaden.stanford.edu/insurance/2010_dependent.html, and this will be updated as more details are available. An important detail is that students are only able to enroll their dependents in this plan at the beginning of the student’s enrollment at Stanford, or following a “qualifying event,” including a marriage or birth of a child. Enrollment in Cardinal Care will be mandatory for all international students.
2008-09
The Vaden Advisory Committee is established and composed of members from both the graduate and undergraduate body, the Director of Vaden, and other staff in order to facilitate and strengthen the communication between Vaden and the student body.
The University announces a new quarterly $167 fee:
“Beginning in September 2009, Stanford University will charge a mandatory Campus Health Service Fee for all students enrolled on the main campus. For the 2009-10 academic year the fee is $167 per quarter, an amount that will allow us to maintain our support for students in spite of rising costs and unprecedented financial challenges for the university. The fee covers most of the services provided by Vaden Health Center, including primary care medical visits, psychological evaluation and short-term therapy at Counseling and Psychological Services, and health and wellness programs. More information and answers to questions about the fee can be found at http://vaden.stanford.edu/fees.”
2006-07
Stanford University announces it will cut dependent Health Insurance for graduate student dependents due to the large increase in cost of the dependent health insurance program and the low enrollment.
2003-04
In the Summer of 2003, the Graduate Health Care Task Force and the Vaden Insurance Advisory Committee met with representatives of Towers-Perrin, the firm consulting to and representing the University in health care contract negotiations. In this unprecedented event, the Task Force had realized one of its goals of becoming a strategic partner with the University in directing health care policy for graduate students and their families.
2002-03
The Health Insurance Task Force developed and administered a campus-wide dental care survey to assess student interest, economic preferences, previous experiences and willingness to pay for dental care; 1167 graduate students responded. As a result of the survey, the University has aggressively sought vendors for dental care and, with the consultation of the Task Force, is working to develop a comprehensive health care package that includes dental coverage. In the Spring of 2003, the Task Force successfully negotiated a continuation of the subsidy program, proportional increases in subsidy amounts, and an optional dental plan.
2001-02
In Spring 2002 the University announced a subsidy plan. Under the plan, all graduate students receiving income for work as a teaching assistant/research assistant/community associate as well as all student dependents would receive a subsidy to help meet the severely increasing costs of health care coverage.
2000-01
In the Spring of 2001, a memo was issued to graduate students from Cowell Student Health Service discussing the ramifications of SHC no longer providing HMO services for student dependents. The memo was thought to portend imminent and catastrophic cutbacks, particularly for student dependent health care services, and precipitated a crisis for the newly seated GSC of 2001.
During the Summer of 2001, the University administration provided a one-time subsidy to graduate dependents to help defray the drastically increased premiums of non-HMO health coverage.
The Graduate Health Care Task Force emerged from the advocacy efforts of the GSC and other individuals. The Task Force was founded initially by GSC members Ray Rivera and Lisa Wong, who had also been appointed to the Cowell Insurance Advisory Committee earlier in the Spring.
Pre-2000
As early as 1996, a merger between the hospitals and clinics of UCSF and Stanford resulted in massive deficits. The dissolution of the failed merger left Stanford Hospital and Clinics financially unsound, with deficits in the ten of millions. As part of their efforts to restore stability, Stanford Hospitals & Clinic phased out providing services as part of HMO contracts.
GSC Members Who Worked on This Issue in Prior to 2009-10
- Hanna Muenke
- Grace Chang gracec@stanford.edu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
- Maria Elena Gonzalez mariaelena.gonzalez@stanford.edu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
- Ray Rivera rjrivera@stanford.edu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
- Mark Smith
- Lisa Wong
- Stephen Hunt
