your life your life

LIZ LAVIN DEPUTY EDITOR EAL723@CABRINI EDU NICOLE OSUCH MANAGING EDITOR NAO722@CABRINI EDU

Every year 47 million people in the United States find themselves without health care insurance. Finding health care coverage is an issue college students deal with as they near graduation and realize they will be on their own in the real world. The career choices college students make often have a direct correlation with the health care they receive.

Graduate student

Gail Ziegler, a 2007 graduate of Cabrini College, is a full-time graduate student at American University. She is covered until she is 23 years old through her father’s insurance plan. Upon turning 23 she plans to purchase COBRA, a recommended temporary health care option, until she finds employment after graduating from graduate school. “That’s the plan for now; hopefully it won’t be for too long.” She feels that she has been fortunate enough to have health care coverage up to this point. “It’s always been a priority in my family to have health care insurance. My mother works in a hospital and she has seen what can happen if you don’t have it.”

Unemployed graduate

Like many graduates, Jeremy Stevens, a 2007 Cabrini College graduate, found himself graduating without a job lined up and off his parents’ health insurance plan a few weeks after graduating. Stevens considered himself a healthy 21-year-old and was considering not purchasing any insurance but his parents changed his attitude. “What if I was in a serious car accident and I had no insurance? Would they have to sell their house to pay my medical bills?” Since he did not have a full-time job he purchased short-term health insurance through GradMed.com. “My options were reasonable because the recommended COBRA health insurance is about $300 a month whereas my insurance through GradMed.com was $300 for four months. It is catastrophe insurance, meaning it would help out if I was in a serious accident. I would not use this type of insurance to get medicine for a common cold.” Stevens just accepted a job in which the benefits do not start for three months, so he renewed his short-term insurance.

Small business

Jonathan Barnett, current senior English and communication major, has to purchase his own insurance because his family owns a small flower shop with approximately 10 employees. As a result, Barnett’s father purchases health care coverage for $1,047 a month for a family of four. “I don’t have the worst [health care] but I don’t have great coverage.” A trip to the emergency room costs $100, to see a specialist can cost $40-$80, co-pays are $20 and there is no prescription coverage. “I don’t remember the last time I went to the doctor. It makes it hard to keep up with health problems because of the cost of frequent visits and treatment. In my opinion, we are stuck with doctors that aren’t necessarily the best.” Once Barnett graduates, he says that he will be looking for better benefits but he is not going to compromise a good job.

Major corporation

Brian Lynch, a 2007 graduate of St. Joseph’s University, used health care as a deciding factor in choosing a job. A major factor for him was to work in a big corporation as opposed to a small business because large corporations have more comprehensive health care plans and less out-of-pocket expenses. His current employer offered him two health care options, Blue Cross Personal Choice or Aetna Group 2, which would start his first day on the job. Smaller companies offered him a 60 percent40-percent deal that would start after 90 days, in which the employer covered 40 percent of health care costs and he would have to take care of the rest. “Lincoln Financial Group offered the full package -- full health, dental and vision coverage which would also cover my daughter.”

Working as a unionized employee

Kevin Hagerty has worked for Albertson’s Inc. full time for the past 22 years. The union he belongs to is one of the best in the country, he said, and the coverage he gets is rated one of the best. “I am very satisfied with our health coverage,” Theresa Hagerty, wife of Kevin Hagerty, said. “With our plan, our kids can go to preferred doctors even when they are away at college because there is a huge network of doctors and hospitals. Wherever you go you can get help.”As a result of having such a good plan, the Hagerty family can take advantage of routine preventative screenings, reimbursed gym memberships, two dental visits a year and immunizations, among other benefits.

Low income

Lindsey Harner, a junior psychology major, has stateprovided health insurance. “We have very basic insurance,” she said. “The co-pays are low, but they expect four people to be healthy because they won’t pay for it.” The state-provided health insurance is more for doctor visits, not big emergencies. Having health insurance is “definitely something I think about,” she said. “You grow up taking insurance for granted and then when you realize you have to pay for it, it’s something you worry about.”

Editorial

Prepare yourself for the future

Health Care has been a continuing topic of conversation, especially among the candidates in the on-going debates. A serious topic indeed, health care raises so many questions, especially to people of college age, who will soon be off their parents insurance if they are still on it when they graduate college.

For years, kids under a good insurance plan take it all for granted. Paying co-pays, visiting selected doctors and other things are just some of the hassle that come along with insurance.

On the front page, a light was shone on eight different situations typical to people around the United States -- the student continuing onto grad school, the unemployed graduate, the graduate looking into major corporations for employment and what they have to do to make sure that they are covered by health care.

Those situations reveal important factors in the debate about health care today, but there are also other issues to know about as well.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people without health insurance coverage overall rose from 44.8 million people in 2005 to 47 million people in 2006.

A continuing debate is the struggle for African American families to receive health care. Why? Because African Americans are more likely to become diagnosed with a disease than any other group of people. Not only can 24.3 percent of African Americans not afford health care, but also the ones who can, have trust issues with doctors that date back to the 1920s and the Tuskegee Experiment, which was when African American male sharecroppers were denied treatment for Syphilis.

The main source of care for people without health care is the emergency room. Taxpayers need to understand that public hospital emergency rooms then bill governments for costs to treat those without insurance. People without insurance also don’t get preventive care. When the uninsured get sick, they get really sick and end up costing those with insurance in the long run when they go to the emergency room.

It’s not something you hear about everyday, but these are definitely other issues in health care that need to be addressed. Yet another topic of growing concern is the rapid growth of Americans traveling to other countries to undergo major medical surgeries.

Although it has existed for years, Americans are now more actively contacting medical tourism travel agencies to arrange trips because they either have poor medical insurance, or none at all.

Places such as Latin America, Thailand, India and Malaysia are major traveling destinations for those seeking surgeries. When this first began, it was mostly for cosmetic surgery. Good idea, right, going on vacation and coming home with a brand new face and body?

Something must be done. When Americans are leaving their own country because they can get operations for thousands of dollars cheaper, is when Congress should raise an eyebrow. Devising a medical plan to cover everyone living in the United States is not an impossible task, especially for someone who wants to be president of the United States.

As college students, we should begin learning more about our own personal insurance, because it will be valuable information in our future, especially in the upcoming Presidential Elections. Our generation should be listening to what every candidate has to say, because it affects our future, more than we may understand.