2B
Friday, January 15, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Health
Continued from p. 1B
by getting discount rate medical insurance offered though KU's Student Senate. For about the last 20 years Student Senate has had insurance companies offer students insurance at a discount rate, Strobl said.
G—M Underwriters, Inc., a Rochester, Mich., currently offers a discount insurance plan to KU students and students at 65 universities and the United States. About 2,800 KU students have health coverage under this plan.
Meredith Uttley, Lawrence graduate student and chairman of the KU student health advisory board, a group of students and Watkins administrators that sets health care policy at the University, said G-M Underwriters was selected by the Student Senate two years ago.
Each year, the board draws up a list of specific benefits and sends them to insurance companies, she said. Then the companies say how much each benefit will cost students, Utley said.
The board, working on behalf of the Senate, chooses the least expensive plan that meets the criteria, Uttley said.
Then the board makes its recommendation and Student Senate votes on it. This year's discount rate insurance costs about 35 percent less than similar plans, Uttley said.
The policy G—M Underwriters offers students covers students for up to $1 million in medical costs at any hospital in the world. The plan covers students for sickness and accidents only. The deductible, the amount a student must pay, is $100.
Out of reach
Strobli said students with large medical bills for complex and expensive medical care such as open-heart surgery have had almost all of the bill paid by the medical insurance offered through Student Senate.
The policy costs $459 a year for a single student, $1,308 for a student
and a spouse, $1,011 for a student with children and $1,512 for a student with a family.
Foubert said he could have purchased the insurance if it had cost a
"If it would come down a little bit to become a real game, I could still watch." "Foubber said."
Utley said she knew there were students who do not have medical insurance because either they can't afford it, they don't believe they need it or they don't know that discount rate insurance is available.
She said even though she and the members of the Student Senate knew there were students who wanted the discount medical insurance but couldn't afford it, the Senate did not plan to change the benefits of the insurance or lower the cost.
Students without insurance
Many of the students who do not have insurance are graduate students and non-traditional students, Uttley said.
"Graduate students, especially often don't have the money to pay for insurance," Utley said. "Other graduate students want insurance, but they feel the insurance the University offers does not serve their needs."
Janine Demo, a health educator at Watkins, said that while physical examinations were being given to students, she had talked to many foreign students who had told her they did not have health insurance. The American Health Officers organization, which educates students about health issues through activities such as distributing pamphlets in residence halls.
"I really think a lot of them don't have insurance because so many countries have socialized medicine," Demo said. "They don't understand our medical system."
"Foreign students don't understand what insurance is. They think the fee they pay at enrollment covers
it all. What they don't realize is that the tuition fee doesn't cover the disasters that may happen."
Students discontented
Glenn Shirtliffe, Gloucester, Canada, graduate student and Student Senate finance chairman, said he had talked with graduate students last spring who approached him when Student Senate was voting whether to renew the policy with G-M Under-writers. Some of the students, he said, told him they did not like the coverage the discount insurance offered.
"Some graduate students are a little discontented with the insurance," Shirliffe said. "Some of the students, especially those with families, are not too thrilled about the plan."
"Blue Cross and Blue Shield was not as easy to work with a G-M Underwriters," Uttley said. "We didn't get reports in as quickly from Blue Cross and Blue Shield and they didn't pay their claims as quickly. They didn't seem as interested in the student as G-M Underwriters, which even have a student representative at Watkins to answer any questions about the coverage."
But Ottley said she thought the G-M Underwriters plan was more attractive to students than the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan offered several years ago.
Chris Newman, marketing director for G-M Underwriters in Rochester, Mich., said she thought G-M Underwriters offered students good benefits.
She said the cost of coverage had to be raised an average of $10 a month last year because the maximum they were raised from $250,000 to $1 million
"We seek to find the best plan that suits students' needs," she said. "If the University wants a comprehensive package, we have to charge for that."
Attracting students
The number of KU students who have policies with G-M Underwriters went from 2,100 students two years ago, when the company took over the Student Senate contract from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, to 2,800 students this year. The increase in student policies shows that students are satisfied with the plan, Newman said.
"We know enrollment has gone up at KU," Newman said. "But we think students are getting good service from our company and that is why the number of policies we sell to KU students has gone up."
Newman said that G-M Underwriters knew there were KU students who didn't have medical insurance because they either didn't know the discount rate insurance was available or they didn't think they could afford it.
To reach the students who don't know the discount rate insurance is available, the company is placing advertisements in the basketball programs for all KU home games. The company will also place advertisements in Lawrence newspapers this year, she said.
"We think that when students see we offer, they will want to get input," he said.
Strobli said the cost of the plan offered to students was about half what he paid for his medical insurance though the coverage was similar.
"I think it is a very excellent plan," Strobi said. "As a staff member at the University, I'd love to have that money." I say, "Save some money on my insurance."
Strobl said that even students who have low incomes should try to find a way to purchase medical insurance.
"I think everyone absolutely has to have insurance." Strobl said. "Anyone who says they can't afford it is not very informed. They can't afford not to have insurance."
Librarian
society of noteworthy people in the book world.
Continued from p. 1B
But she doesn't like to talk about it. It sounds too much like self-praise. She'd rather think of herself as a spider just sitting in her web.
Mason has worked on national committees, dealing mostly with rare books and manuscripts, almost continuously since the 1960s. Her appointments to posts in the book world stretch into a long list. If it's about books, it seems, Alexandra Mason has done it.
she doesn't mind talking about how she loves to relax by driving her shiny red MGB. "I've never had a car that wasn't a convertible." she says, "I suppose I'll have to sometime when I get old and rheumaticy and can't take the top up and down.
"Then I'll get a sunroof."
It makes perfect sense to Alexandra Mason. If it relaxes her to play in tidal pools, then by Jove, she'll play in tidal pools. And if she likes the sound of the words when she pronounces "tellyvision" and "aeroplane," then why not say them that way?
Mason has a habit of pepping her conversation with these odd turns of phrase. She uses phrases like "By Jove" even though she isn't British; in fact she was raised in Massachusetts, where she earned a degree in Greek from Mount Holyoke College.
Reading is her first love, and has been ever since she was a little girl reading soap boxes in the bathroom. "It's words. The history of words. How they're used and where they came from," she says.
If it relaxes Mason to play in tidal pools, then by Jove, she'll play in tidal pools. And if she likes the sound of the words when she pronounces "tellyvision" and "aeroplane," then why not say them that way?
"If I couldn't read. . . God! Yeah, I'd be done for. I could probably live without being able to walk, but reading. . ." She shakes her head. The thought is to terrible to dwell on.
"I was one of those really nasty kids who loved school," she says. "Except for recess and lunch hour. Which I hated! Because learning is the most stimulating thing there is."
Alexandra Mason has been a part of the Spencer Research Library for a long time.
She points to a round silver plate on the windowsill. It is a plaque commemorating her 30th year with the library. She takes a final drag of her Benson & Hedges and stubs it out in an ashtray. "It's kind of funny," she says, "I don't go for that sort of thing. But I got a charge out of it."
The inscription on the plate is short:
Alexandra Mason
Spencer Libarian
The First 30 Years
1957-1987
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