Healthcare
ASEs need to see improvements to the health insurance plan, and need WSU to take our health and wellbeing seriously. We are demanding:
- Affordable, adequate health insurance that ensures we have access to care in the places where we live and work.
- Better cost-sharing provisions to reduce the out of pocket costs we face on low incomes
Many ASEs have reported issues accessing affordable healthcare. In the last plan year, 15 ASEs exceeded their out-of-pocket maximum costs of $7K for healthcare. In a unit where that much money often amounts to half of an ASE’s annual take home pay, this is completely unacceptable. Additionally, on some campuses, many ASEs lack access to affordable healthcare, or healthcare at all.
Admins’ illegal actions in May already cost ASEs the chance to negotiate health insurance coverage for the 2023-2024 plan year. Now ASEs are trying to negotiate a plan for 2024-2025. Since last March, ASEs have asked Admin to put out a Request for Proposals so we can compare our current insurance carrier with other potential options. We are just now – 10 months later – starting to see results but the process is not moving efficiently.
“I was lucky to be covered by my parents’ insurance until I was 26 – they’re in a teachers union which has served them, and me, very well. When I turned 26 during my PhD I had to switch to the insurance we have as ASEs. On our ASE insurance, the price of prescriptions I need to be at my most productive went up by 200%. It’s clear that our insurance can be so much better.”
“Graduate students deserve more than minimum healthcare coverage, access, and options!”