Students to vote on Health Center fee hike

By JACKIE WOMACK

An increase in the cost of health care coverage has forced University Health and Psychological Services to ask students to pay more for theirs.

The Health Services Referendum is a proposed fee increase of $20 per semester that will be voted on by students in a special election to be held Feb.23-24.

If passed, the fees would go up starting in Fall 2005 and would increase by $2 a semester beginning in Fall 2006 and lasting until Fall 2009.

“[Associated Students is] definitely supporting it,” said Associated Students president Molly Fagundes.

“Most students are against fee increases, but we think it’s really important.”

Psychology major Alicia Medina said she didn’t agree with the proposed fee hike.

“Everything’s so expensive already,” Medina said. “They’re charging us all kinds of money and they’re increasing the fees.”

Health center director Dr. Robert Paull said costs beyond the center’s control have driven up expenses.

“The majority of our cost is salary and benefits,” he said. “Benefits have gone up significantly. The costs have almost doubled in the past few years.”

Paull said that since the Health Center gets 97 percent of its funding from the student health fees, the university doesn’t cover the center’s employees under its health care plan and the center has to pay for its own.

He said retirement benefits have also contributed to increased costs.

Fagundes said that even with the fee increase, the Health Center is a “good deal” for students.

“It’s on campus,” she said. “It’s quick and efficient. The staff’s always nice. And the medicine’s cheap.”

Fagundes said she has used the center herself a few times for physical therapy.

“I think [the fee increase] is a good idea,” said Liza Bolanos, a sociology and Chicano/Latino studies major, “because I know that there are a lot of people on campus who don’t have access to health care and it’s a great avenue [for it].”

Chad Boberg, a mass communication and journalism major, also agreed to the increase.

“I think health’s an important issue,” he said. “I don’t mind paying $20 extra.”

Paull said Associated Students has been very supportive of the fee increase.

“Quite frankly, I haven’t heard anyone that wasn’t supportive,” he said.

Paull said that, of the $65 that students pay for health fees, the center gets $60 and $5 goes to financial aid.

“It was sufficient until a year ago,” he said.

At that time, the center had to start using its reserves to help pay its costs because of the increase in health care costs, he said.

“If the referendum doesn’t pass, the reserves will be depleted next year,” Paull said.

He said the center would then have to cut back on its services.

The center offers laboratory, X-ray, psychiatry and physical therapy services, in addition to regular medical care.

Paull said that if the increased health fee passes, the center would drop most of the treatment fees it has, like the $20 physical therapy fee. Fees would remain for the pharmacy and lab, however.

“Even with the modest fees we’ve instituted, the bargains are still there,” said Lawrence Haugen, associate director of the Health Center.

He said a physical therapy treatment can cost close to $200 off-campus. Paull said other California State University campuses have either already added to their health fees or are in the process of voting on it.

Bolanos said she was worried that the fee might be voted down.

“I think a lot of students are going to be really confused unless they get the right information,” Bolanos said.

She said students might mistake the health fee with the tuition increase set for next fall.

But Fagundes said Associated Students is working on that issue.

“Associated Students is doing its best to let students know about the health fee,” she said.