I tried to get my prescription filled today at the University Park pharmacy, and they told me I had to re-enroll in the student health insurance. I thought it was odd since I never had to do this before, but I went ahead and re-enrolled. When I called them back, after waiting on hold for a while, they asked if I was a grad student. When I said yes, they told me my insurance wouldn’t be active until October. Nobody from the university warned us about this. I found out only because I needed a prescription. Penn State said to keep receipts for reimbursement, but that’s not how insurance should work. What if someone gets really sick or has an accident? This is why we pay for insurance in the first place. It’s not fair to expect us to pay upfront and hope for reimbursement. The lack of communication is the worst part. No emails, no flyers, no meetings—nothing. We deserve better than this.
It’s frustrating to deal with such poor communication from the university. They should have been more upfront about this.
Avery said:
It’s frustrating to deal with such poor communication from the university. They should have been more upfront about this.
As a grad student, I totally understand why people are upset. Most of us are grad assistants and automatically enrolled in insurance because we work as teaching or research assistants. In the past, everything just carried over year to year. But now we have a new provider. The coverage technically started yesterday, but nobody has ID cards or knows what the plan actually covers. They haven’t even set up the computer systems. UHS is making us pay everything out of pocket and telling us to get reimbursed later. This is a huge problem, especially since prescriptions can cost a lot. Nobody warned us about this in advance.
@Quinlan
Do you think there’s any way to resolve this quickly? It’s ridiculous to expect students to pay out of pocket like this.
Avery said:
@Quinlan
Do you think there’s any way to resolve this quickly? It’s ridiculous to expect students to pay out of pocket like this.
We shouldn’t have to buy extra insurance to cover this gap. Our insurance officially started when the old plan expired, and we’re paying for it through deductions from our paychecks. The university messed up by not getting us our ID cards on time. On top of that, they haven’t communicated with us. The last health insurance email I got was months ago. It’s unacceptable that we have to find out about this by accident.
@Quinlan
The lack of communication is the worst part. Even if this is just a temporary issue, the university should have informed students well in advance so we could plan for it. You’re right to be upset.
@Quinlan
It’s absurd. Do you know if they’ve fixed this issue for students with dependents?
Avery said:
@Quinlan
It’s absurd. Do you know if they’ve fixed this issue for students with dependents?
Not yet. A lot of spouses who are on the plan are also stuck without coverage because the university hasn’t even sent out information on adding dependents yet.
Avery said:
@Quinlan
Do you think there’s any way to resolve this quickly? It’s ridiculous to expect students to pay out of pocket like this.
I looked through the benefits booklet, but it doesn’t even list basic information like whether x-rays or mental health services are covered. Most of the document just lists things that aren’t covered.
Avery said:
It’s frustrating to deal with such poor communication from the university. They should have been more upfront about this.
I’ve been here for four years, and this has never happened before. If they needed to make a change like this, they should have sent multiple emails and put up flyers all over campus. Town hall meetings would have been a good idea too. Instead, they left us to find out on our own when we needed medical care. It’s not right, and it’s the university’s responsibility to make sure grad students have proper insurance coverage.
Someone I know from the graduate employees coalition is looking into this situation now.
This is a terrible situation, but make sure to keep documenting everything. If you’re in a car accident, auto insurance should cover medical expenses. As for other medical needs, once your insurance officially starts, the company should process any expenses retroactively. Still, this doesn’t excuse the university’s poor handling of the situation.
@Eli
The problem is that we don’t have insurance cards or policy numbers yet. Without those, we can’t provide any information to doctors or pharmacies. For now, the UHS pharmacy is making us pay the full cost upfront, which isn’t feasible for most grad students.
This is one of the reasons we need to unionize. It’s clear that the administration doesn’t prioritize our needs.