By THE PANTHER EDITORIAL BOARD
The majority of Chapman students are still learning how to take care of themselves. We’re learning how far we can push our bodies before they collapse in a protest to lack of sleep, malnutrition, promiscuity and intoxication. Some learn more quickly and with less injury than others, but we’re all bound to break every now and again.
With the amount that we pay in health insurance, we should have somewhere that we can go to be fixed.
National health care has been sorely neglected over the past eight years and health insurance is becoming increasingly unaffordable. The total cost for family coverage now averages $12,680 a year - a five percent increase from 2007, according to The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health research group. Chapman’s student health care system is following suit.
All full-time undergraduate students are automatically charged for Chapman’s health insurance plan. It is not a fully paid comprehensive medical plan. Students are not covered for routine physical exams, prescriptions or motor vehicle accidents. Some of these services are offered at the Student Health Center but students are required to pay an extra fee or they are referred to either Sunrise Medical Center or St. Joseph Hospital, both in Orange. Even the services most common to students, from colds and coughs to injuries easily sustained from a night of drunken of debauchery gone wrong – car accident wounds and STD testing are not provided without extra cost under the health insurance plan.
On a campus where 37 percent of undergraduate students live in university housing and are in almost constant contact with each other, a basic flu immunization should be a priority for the Student Health Center. Instead it costs an additional $15 and is offered for only 3 days during the fall semester. Students come in “most often with colds, flu and rashes,” said Chapman’s director of student health, Jaqueline Deats. STD testing is another of the most common requests and “the gynecological exam is one of our most popular visits,” she said.
STD testing costs $40 for females and $23 for males. HIV testing is available at the Health Center but costs $15. These fees, while they seem minimal, often mean the difference between a student taking a test or immunization injection and the spreading of the virus or disease among Chapman students. The money that goes into the health insurance plans is not being spent on the things that we are most likely to need out of it.
With the amount that we pay in health insurance, we should have somewhere that we can go to be fixed.
National health care has been sorely neglected over the past eight years and health insurance is becoming increasingly unaffordable. The total cost for family coverage now averages $12,680 a year - a five percent increase from 2007, according to The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health research group. Chapman’s student health care system is following suit.
All full-time undergraduate students are automatically charged for Chapman’s health insurance plan. It is not a fully paid comprehensive medical plan. Students are not covered for routine physical exams, prescriptions or motor vehicle accidents. Some of these services are offered at the Student Health Center but students are required to pay an extra fee or they are referred to either Sunrise Medical Center or St. Joseph Hospital, both in Orange. Even the services most common to students, from colds and coughs to injuries easily sustained from a night of drunken of debauchery gone wrong – car accident wounds and STD testing are not provided without extra cost under the health insurance plan.
On a campus where 37 percent of undergraduate students live in university housing and are in almost constant contact with each other, a basic flu immunization should be a priority for the Student Health Center. Instead it costs an additional $15 and is offered for only 3 days during the fall semester. Students come in “most often with colds, flu and rashes,” said Chapman’s director of student health, Jaqueline Deats. STD testing is another of the most common requests and “the gynecological exam is one of our most popular visits,” she said.
STD testing costs $40 for females and $23 for males. HIV testing is available at the Health Center but costs $15. These fees, while they seem minimal, often mean the difference between a student taking a test or immunization injection and the spreading of the virus or disease among Chapman students. The money that goes into the health insurance plans is not being spent on the things that we are most likely to need out of it.
By THE PANTHER EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITORIAL | To start, we would like to offer sincere congratulations to the seven newly elected senators. May your time in office prove productive and rewarding. Read full Editorial >> MOST EMAILED:
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