VOL.101,NO.62
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KANAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
DEPEKA KS 66612
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING:864-4358
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1991
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
Many students living without insurance plan
By Kerrie Gottschalk
Kansan staff writer
A car almost mowed down Randy Mehling earlier this year near Allen Field House.
"I was walking on the sidewalk and was crossing on one of the side roads," he recalls.
He heard a car coming and jumped onto the sidewalk, he said.
"I if would have been in the middle of the street, he would have hit me," he said.
After that incident, Mehling said he thought twice about what would have happened if he were sent to a hospital.
"Beats me what I would have done," he said. "I guess I would have had a big hospital bill. I'd probably have to take a payment plan with the hospital."
Many students who are insured are covered by their parents' policies.
Mehling, a Lawrence senior, has no health insurance. He never has had any while attending the University of Kansas.
Like a growing number of people in the United States, students are finding that health insurance is expensive, limited or inadequate.
Other students rely on health insurance offered through their schools.
But nationwide, many students simply live without the protection of health.
"I know I am taking a calculated risk by not having insurance," Mehling said.
Important facts about student health insurance offered by KU this year
- When health fees exceed the $100 deductible, the plan begins paying 80% of the fees. When the 20% paid by the student exceeds $1,100, the plan begins paying 100%.
• The plan has a lifetime maximum of $250,000.
Nearly six million 19- to 24-year-olds in the United States do not have health insurance.
Approximately 24 percent of college students said they did not have health insurance, according to a study conducted by the American College Health Association.
So are many others.
- The plan has a $100 deductible
That means some 3,500 to 5,600 students at KU are not covered by any buydu.
Jim Strobl, director of student health services at KU, said he estimated about 15 percent of the undergraduates at KU did not have health insurance.
Services available for full health fee coverage at KU
According to a 1989 study conducted by university researcher Margaret McManus, expense was the most common reason students cited for not having insurance. There is also a belief that health insurance is not needed also were common responses.
He said he and most of his Friends who were foreign students did not have bachles degree.
Healthy students under a tight budg-
get like Mehling, try to do without
heal-
Eugene Yeng is another one of those students.
Yeng is from Malaysia and transferred to KU this semester.
But Yeng said he and most of his friends were on limited budgets
"There are friends who say, 'If you can afford it, get it,' Yeng said.
- Medical evaluation, history, examination and most treatments provided by the physicians and registered nurses.
- One session of counseling or psychological services.
- One session of dietitian counseling.
- One session of physical therapy.
- Department of Health Education Services.
Student health insurance through
the school depletes most of his U.S. budget.
- The plan has a lifetime maximum of $250,000.
- Walkins Memorial Health Center is the company's preferred health center. Eight of its care elsewhere, an extra $25 deductible is added to any allowable charges.
- The $25 fee does not apply when:
"I pay for medicine, that's all," he said.
Yeng can see a physician for free at Watkins. The visits are covered through the health fee, which is included in a campus fee all students pay.
There is a charge for many services (usually lower than elsewhere). Charges and/or coverage under the student health fee may be adjusted at any time.
- Department of Health Education Services
- a dependent, who is not eligible to obtain services at Watkins, needs
- services needed are not provided at Watkins *
* seeking services for a life-threatening condition *
Source: Student Health Insurance Plan brochure
During the 1991 spring semester, the campus fee was $169 for full-time students. Approximately $70 of that fee went for student health services.
Melissa Unterberg / KANSAN
Yong said he and his friends tried to
tell each other when one of them became
a slave.
"We have a first-aid kit and flu
antidrol," she said. "We check our
our diet and try to keep it balanced."
Yeng's roommate, Phang Kok Woei, added, "If one of us does get sick, we borrow money from one another until we receive money from home."
Rising costs of care
Throughout the country, the cost of medical care continues to climb.
Steven O'Neil, a consumer assistant representative at the State of Kansas Insurance Department, said the cost of raising faster than the rate of inflation
In 1988, 11.1 percent of the gross national product in the United States consisted of national health care expenditures, according to The Source Book of Health Insurance Data.
To keep pace with the rising costs, insurance companies must raise their muni-
The use of more sophisticated equipment to diagnose and treat a medical problem is one reason health care costs are increasing, he said.
"Doctors are practicing defensive medicine today," O'Neil said.
According to recent national research, young adults in college are more likely to have health insurance than young adults not in college.
The threat to malpractice also lead policymakers to use new, more sophisticated
Adequacy of insurance
This year, a single student policy at KU is $565, and there are more than 20 points of exclusions in the policy such as preventive drugs and vaccines, routine physical examinations and birth-control devices.
About 12 percent of KU students carry the policy offered through the University by GM Underwriters Agency, Inc.
"Students are in an age group that makes them a much lower risk, which makes premiums affordable," O'Neil said.
McManus and her colleagues question the adequacy of health insurance保障。
McManus reported that while premiums and deductibles were low at many colleges, students often had to pay large out-of-pocket fees.
At the University of Oklahoma,
approximately 10 percent of the
students this year subscribed to the
Cross/Blue Shield insurance policy.
However, there is a trade off for the low premium and deductibles. The policy will pay only a set fee for any service. That means the company will pay only what it thinks a procedure requires. The student is stuck with the balance owed.
The premium this year at Oklahoma is $230. The deductibles are $100 for outpatient care and $200 for inpatient care.
KU graduate student DeeDee Dillon would have used up her maximum benefit by if she had a policy like Oklahoma's.
Dillon had surgeries in September and October for detached retinas.
In addition, Oklahoma's policy provides a small maximum benefit of $10,000.
Retired Lt. Col. Oliver North is caught off guard as an admirer poses for a picture to be taken by a friend. An Oversee Borden Border Agent in Overland Park, to see the Iranian contractor, who was signing this biography, "Under Fire."
Promotional tour brings Oliver North to KC area
By Melissa Rodgers
See INSURANCE. p.8
OVERLAND PARK — Some in line for at least three hours last night clutching books, hoping to possibly hand a handshake or photograph.
Kansan staff writer
"You're the greatest American patriot of our time," a woman said as she approached the podium at Borders Book Shon with a book in hand.
Looking tired, with a day's grow,
of stubble, Oliver North smiled as
he signed one book after another and
said, "Thank you."
North was in the Kansas City area for a 22-city tour promoting his book, "Under Fire: An American Story." It was his 16th stop.
More than 700 people swamped the bookstore, causing store personnel to scurry out to buy extra books
for the crowd, which snaked outside the store around the side of the building to the rear loading docks.
John Williams of Border Books said the store had sold at least 1,200 of the books yesterday.
Bryan Lyon of Kansas City, Mo. handed the retired Marine lieutenant colonel a $50 bottle of champagne.
"Thanks, partner," said North, smiling for a photograph with the other former Marine.
"Your picture is in my family room," Margo Blades of Mission proudly told North.
"I appreciate you for coming," he told her.
Walter Defebaugh of Shawnee velled, "Ollie for president!"
A burly, bearded man shouted. "If you need a bodyguard, I'm up for hire."
North grinned, continuing to sign his name.
A young blonde woman gushed,
"You don't know me, but I'm in love with you."
North laughed.
He was greeting his fan club
Jevit Bethke of Border Books said North would not answer questions from the press during the hour-and-a-half-long book signing.
The autobiography tells North's version of the Iran-contra affair and of President Reagan's and high officials' involvement in the scandal.
KU graduate Bryan Johnson said he had followed the Iran-contra hearings and that North's book was a closing chapter.
"I think he has an integrity about him," Johnson said.
Shiite Muslims release two Western hostages
The Associated Press
DAMASCUS, Syria — Shite Muslim kidnappers freed British hostage Terry Wate and U.S. citizen Thomas Lutherland yesterday, and Waite said the remaining three U.S. citizens Husdere in Lebanon would be released by month's send.
Their release by the group Islamic Jihad, or Holy War, was a dramatic advance toward ending the hostage ordre. The United Nations has been leading diplomatic efforts to gain freedom for Western hostages in Iraq and to secure the Arab detainees held by Israel—a condition demanded by the kidnappers.
"Terry Waite and I are very happy to have received our first glups of Lebanon and Syrian fresh air, but we have to wait to tomorrow to meet the sunshine," a joyous Sutherland said on his arrival from Beirut.
Sutherland and Waite had been considered key hostages, partly because of the length of time they had been held. Their release raised speculation that the Israelis may have made a commitment to free Sheik Abdul-Karim Obeid, their most valuable Shite prisoner.
Waits said at a news conference that his captors told him before they set him free that U.S. hostages Joseph Cicciopio and Alam Steen would be released within the next five days and U.S. hostage Terry Anderson would be released by the end of the month.
Decreasing state funding may shift college costs onto students
By Alexander Bloemhof
Kansan staff writer
The cost of higher education increasingly is being paid by students, and they are getting less for their tuition than on statistics from the KU budget office.
If Gov. Joan Finney adopts the recommendations by the state budget director for the 1993 budget, students will be one percent of the University's budget per person.
The rest of the budget is financed with state tax money, and that share has declined since 1990.
Student tuition and fees financed 34 percent of the University's 1992 bud
According to the budget director's recommendations, the state's share would decrease further in 1983 by a factor of result would in a budget cut for KU.
"Students would actually pay more but get less because the University would have less money," said Linda Kroll, an adjunct professor for administration and finance.
Eakin said the state budget directive had not approved any of KU's requests.
Instead, a budget cut of $ 7.1 million for the Board of Regents universities was recommended, and KU would get the money — $ 2.8 million less than last year.
The Board of Regents on Thursday decided to appeal those recommendations and ask the governor for an additional $ 58 million.
Students pay the price
However, legislators said that budget cuts were inevitable because the state did not have enough money and the state does not pay agency agencies, including universities.
While tuition has increased steadily, state financing for KU has consistently decreased since 1990.
Teagarden, who heads the House Appropriations Committee, said he expected a cut of 2 to 1 percent.
Bogina, who heads the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said he
"When you add all things together,
most everything will be cut," said state Rep. George Teagarden, D-LaCynge.
State Sen. Gus Bogina, R-Showman,
or all state
agencies of about 10 percent.
Source: University of Kansas Working Budget
thought tax increases were not an option to increase state revenues.
Melissa Unterberg / KANSAN
"We passed a tax increase last year, and the governor vowed it," he said. "I'd assume she would veto it again this year."
Higher tuition rates are a possibility
to offset declining state support, said Darren Fellner, student body president, referring to a proposal about fees by the Student Advisor Council.
But cost-sharing between state and students has to remain fair,he said.