According to Joe Long, Director of Alumni Relations, there is already an insurance plan for students post-graduation, and a plan for current students will be coming soon.
Many students are unaware of the Plymouth State Alumni Insurance Program, which as of Spring 2005 was just a glint in a hopeful grad’s eye. “We had a dinner for about 40 students,” said Long. “We used that opportunity for what they needed or what they thought was important, stuff that wasn’t going on and how alumni could help them.”
Apparently for those students, one of their biggest concerns was what to do about not having insurance once they were pushed out into the real world. “It was terrible. There were like, eight of them there that weren’t insured at that point at all,” said Long. “From that, we took it and actually developed an insurance program for people after they graduate.”
In September 2006, a short-term plan known as GradMed became available that could be purchased in six month blocks. Although it is meant to be temporary while new alumni look for jobs, a person could keep it forever should they desire, as long as they continue to renew it. There is another plan, AlumniMed, that a person could have starting at age 30, and also can be used to cover spouses and children.
The alumni coverage isn’t offered by the same company that sticks sends out multiple pamphlets to students’ homes all summer, or shoves them in suite boxes at the beginning of the year. That plan is offered through an agency downtown. For students seeking more information about the alumni plan, it can be found on the Alumni page of the Plymouth State University website. There is a category labeled Partners and Sponsors, which leads to a page featuring GradMed, AlumniMed, and others, such as dental & disability insurance.
But what about current students who remain uncovered and live life a little more dangerously each day? Long is currently hard at work developing a plan from the same company, but for people still in school. “It came out of student feedback and what they thought they were missing,” he said. “Since we were with the company that was already going to provide it to alums, we figured it would be a great way to start looking at it as a possibility for providing for students as well.”
Currently, the plan available through the local agency costs between $1300-$1400 per year, and doesn’t cover students during holiday breaks or summer vacation. Long said the appeal of his new plan is that it lets students pick whether they wish to be covered for a semester or an entire year. A semester costs as low as $232, while a year goes for $696, a steal in comparison to the previous plans available.
“It is a traditional 80/20, which means 80% of your coverage would be covered, and 20% would be your responsibility, which is pretty much a standard plan,” said Long.
As of press time, Student Senate is still reviewing Long’s proposal. “There seemed to be some mixed reviews in Senate,” said Sean Greenlaw, Speaker of the Senate. “Tim Keefe was present, and informed the Senate that there was already a health plan available for students, but it was expensive and required that students be in N.H. to seek treatment. This plan that Joe Long had was affordable and flexible, allowing you to have a variety of options and different coverage, and even offered coverage to our non-traditional students by giving them the option of covering spouses and dependants as well.”
He has also had it looked over by the Dean of Students, Athletics and the Directory of Career Services, all of who had useful input on how to make this the best option for students. “We’ve gotten good feedback from the campus because they thought that the pricing was right and the coverage itself was great, however, this is still all in the proposal stages right now,” said Long.
“Joe and I are very optimistic,” said Greenlaw. “He told me that typical enrollment in the first year of this is 1-2% of enrolled students, or about 80 students. I would like to see more students either utilize this plan or switch to this plan for next year, and it will be up to all of us to promote this plan and get the info out to the student body. I believe that students will be happy about getting affordable coverage, and a feeling of comfort for those who are not insured at this time, including myself.”
Long points out that while $700 may be a solid chunk of change for students, it is a fraction of what they would pay for other plans or no insurance at all.
“We want to help out any way we can. Some students when they come here have no idea where to go and finances are obviously an issue, and that is the real student we are looking to cover,” he said.
While it is not ordinarily the alumni director’s responsibility to come up with insurance plans for current students, Long is happy to help out, although he admits it is partly out of selfish reasons, but in a good way. “If we are able to provide this for students, they get to think of themselves as alum earlier. They get to understand and connect with the office sooner, and they can see what the value of being an alum can offer to them, and that’s only a benefit to us.”
Long isn’t hoping to change the world, or even every person on campus. Instead, he would like to see at least a few students get what they need out of an insurance plan, and feel comfort knowing that if they need help it is available to them. “A student who is not thinking about it isn’t going to look at this anyway, but if a student is really concerned about it and worried, I think it is a great opportunity for them.”
For more information about post-graduation plans and to find out more about the proposal in the works, Long can be reached at hlong@plymouth.edu.