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Health Care Debate
Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007
THE LOQUITUR YOU SPEAK, WE LISTEN
Radnor, Pa.
CABRINI COLLEGE
www.theloquitur.com
Health Gcare S E N A H C your life LIZ LAVIN DEPUTY EDITOR EAL723@CABRINI.EDU NICOLE OSUCH MANAGING EDITOR NAO722@CABRINI.EDU
Every year 47 million people in the United States find themselves without health care insurance. Finding health care coverage is an issue college students deal with as they near graduation and realize they will be on their own in the real world. The career choices college students make often have a direct correlation with the health care they receive.
Small business
Jonathan Barnett, current senior English and communication major, has to purchase his own insurance because his family owns a small flower shop with approximately 10 employees. As a result, Barnett’s father purchases health care coverage for $1,047 a month for a family of four. “I don’t have the worst [health care] but I don’t have great coverage.” A trip to the emergency room costs $100, to see a specialist can cost $40-$80, co-pays are $20 and there is no prescription coverage. “I don’t remember the last time I went to the doctor. It makes it hard to keep up with health problems because of the cost of frequent visits and treatment. In my opinion, we are stuck with doctors that aren’t necessarily the best.” Once Barnett graduates, he says that he will be looking for better benefits but he is not going to compromise a good job.
Major corporation
Graduate student Gail Ziegler, a 2007 graduate of Cabrini College, is a full-time graduate student at American University. She is covered until she is 23 years old through her father’s insurance plan. Upon turning 23 she plans to purchase COBRA, a recommended temporary health care option, until she finds employment after graduating from graduate school. “That’s the plan for now; hopefully it won’t be for too long.” She feels that she has been fortunate enough to have health care coverage up to this point. “It’s always been a priority in my family to have health care insurance. My mother works in a hospital and she has seen what can happen if you don’t have it.”
Brian Lynch, a 2007 graduate of St. Joseph’s University, used health care as a deciding factor in choosing a job. A major factor for him was to work in a big corporation as opposed to a small business because large corporations have more comprehensive health care plans and less out-of-pocket expenses. His current employer offered him two health care options, Blue Cross Personal Choice or Aetna Group 2, which would start his first day on the job. Smaller companies offered him a 60 percent40-percent deal that would start after 90 days, in which the employer covered 40 percent of health care costs and he would have to take care of the rest. “Lincoln Financial Group offered the full package -- full health, dental and vision coverage which would also cover my daughter.”
Unemployed graduate
Working as a unionized employee
Like many graduates, Jeremy Stevens, a 2007 Cabrini College graduate, found himself graduating without a job lined up and off his parents’ health insurance plan a few weeks after graduating. Stevens considered himself a healthy 21-year-old and was considering not purchasing any insurance but his parents changed his attitude. “What if I was in a serious car accident and I had no insurance? Would they have to sell their house to pay my medical bills?” Since he did not have a full-time job he purchased short-term health insurance through GradMed.com. “My options were reasonable because the recommended COBRA health insurance is about $300 a month whereas my insurance through GradMed.com was $300 for four months. It is catastrophe insurance, meaning it would help out if I was in a serious accident. I would not use this type of insurance to get medicine for a common cold.” Stevens just accepted a job in which the benefits do not start for three months, so he renewed his short-term insurance.
HEALTH CARE, page 3
Kevin Hagerty has worked for Albertson’s Inc. full time for the past 22 years. The union he belongs to is one of the best in the country, he said, and the coverage he gets is rated one of the best. “I am very satisfied with our health coverage,” Theresa Hagerty, wife of Kevin Hagerty, said. “With our plan, our kids can go to preferred doctors even when they are away at college because there is a huge network of doctors and hospitals. Wherever you go you can get help.”As a result of having such a good plan, the Hagerty family can take advantage of routine preventative screenings, reimbursed gym memberships, two dental visits a year and immunizations, among other benefits.
Low income Lindsey Harner, a junior psychology major, has stateprovided health insurance. “We have very basic insurance,” she said. “The co-pays are low, but they expect four people to be healthy because they won’t pay for it.” The state-provided health insurance is more for doctor visits, not big emergencies. Having health insurance is “definitely something I think about,” she said. “You grow up taking insurance for granted and then when you realize you have to pay for it, it’s something you worry about.”
50 Vol XLIX, Issue 07