Bekah Torcasso sees a specialist for her medical concerns. As a result, she has a higher deductible under the Graduate Assistant Medical & Dental Insurance Plan than she would if she used WSU’s Health and Wellness Services (HWS).

However, changes to the plan may make these services unaffordable, said Torcasso, a Graduate and Professional Student Association senator for the Department of Sociology.

 There are 1,739 graduate assistants in the Graduate Assistant insurance plan.

Due to federal mandates established by the Affordable Care Act, the Counseling and Student Health Advisory Committee (CSHAC) must re-evaluate the coverage offered to graduate assistants. CSHAC will hold an open meeting Wednesday to discuss the changes, but some students suspect foul play.

The council must determine how to increase coverage of issues like emergency room visits. However, Torcasso said health care costs will increase by $264 a year unless cuts are made. She said it is possible that visual and dental coverage may be among the cuts.

“A larger percentage of our income is going to have to go toward paying these health care needs,” Torcasso said.

Graduate School Associate Dean Patricia Sturko said it is possible reductions may be made to lower costs. For example, Sturko said the current plan covers two teeth cleanings a year, where one may be sufficient.

In addition to concerns about changes in their coverage, students like GPSA President Ericka Christensen fear decisions will be made about cutting benefits without their input.

“I think it’s frustrating that they’re holding this meeting during Dead Week, and they’re going to make the decisions they’re going to make before January,” Christensen said.

She said the changes were discussed at last week’s GPSA meeting, but that CSHAC liaison Cortney Hoch was unable to provide senators with details about the potential cuts. Christensen said Hoch showed them documents from The Maksin Group, the insurance company, but she was not allowed to distribute them to students.

Graduate School Dean Howard Grimes said information came too late to distribute a survey or gather student opinions on the cuts. Even though the affordable care act (ACA) was passed in 2010, CSHAC did not know what changes need to be made until October. At that point, they found the cheapest possible plan at $264 more than the current plan.

“We want to provide the best insurance plan we possibly can for our students,” Grimes said.

CSHAC Chair Christina Low, who is a graduate student covered under the plan, said Hoch was unable to distribute documents because they belonged to the insurance company. She also said distributing the documents may have made it seem that the changes were final.

“It was kind of a preliminary proposal rather than something that was definitely going to happen,” she said.

In a Letter to the Editor published in The Daily Evergreen on Monday, Torcasso said CSHAC is uninterested by student concerns.

“I think this kind of dialogue could have been initiated much sooner to avoid that,” Torcasso said. “I think that given the national climate, and different kinds of student protests that are happening elsewhere in the country, I think it is very likely that could have influenced their decision to try to fly under the radar.”

The final plan, however, does not need to be finalized until February, Executive Director of HWS Bruce Wright said. 

“There’s still time for a lot of input,” he said.

But whatever the decision, Wright said the changes come at a time when the state is hurting and unable to support potential changes to the program.

“It’s just that the state doesn’t have a lot of money right now,” he said. “They’re not going to be able to increase the money that they provide WSU to pay for insurance premiums for graduate students.”

According to the Facebook event page made for Wednesday’s meeting, 75 people will attend.

Hoch said there are typically about 25 people at these meetings.

“I think this is going to start the chaos,” Hoch said. “Hopefully, people can speak their minds without anything getting out of control.”

The meeting will be held from noon to 1 p.m.in CUE 518.