The student dependent health care plan covered the dependents of 122 students, but, according to student family organizations, many of those students may have been minority students and international students with families, including possibly some students seeking a higher education who are not in the United States legally.
Kim Lapean, communications manager for UC Berkeley, said the university doesn’t have records on the ethnicity of dependents that were covered under the dependent plan.
Unlike the student health care program that is mandatory for the 36,000 students enrolled at the school unless they can provide proof they are covered on another plan, the student dependent coverage was voluntary. The student dependent plan covered 200 dependents of students at the college and provided an affordable option to student dependents.
The announcement was made in April and affected families of undergraduates as well as graduate students, including those students who are considered university employees while earning their advanced degrees.
Lapean said the decision to drop student dependent health care was a tough one, but, like every organization and employer across the country, health care premiums are skyrocketing and the decision came down to what benefits the most students.
Lapean said the university’s mandatory Student Healthcare Insurance Plan (SHIP) for students covers 22,000 students and is separate from the dependent plan. However, changes in the health care law under the Affordable Care Act do not allow any organization to offer “cafeteria” style health care and mandate that premiums be equally spread out.
