Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time to discuss – Health-care! The University of
Chicago’s health insurance, University Student Health Insurance Plan
(U-SHIP), comes in two flavors: Basic and Prescription Advantage. The finer
points of both of these are available for your perusal here. Essentially, though you get prescription help through both programs, but with
the Basic plan prescriptions are covered up to $1,500 per policy year,
while with the Prescription Advantage plan, this coverage is unlimited. In
terms of cost, the Basic plan breaks down to $675/quarter; the Prescription
Advantage plan – $1030/quarter. Both plans may also be augmented –
at additional cost of course – to include your
dependents, if need be.
The University of Chicago has already enrolled you in – and charged you for
– the Basic healthcare plan. First things first, if you already have health
insurance of your own and don’t want the University’s you can waive this
health insurance by ensuring that your own coverage conforms to some minimum
standards as laid out on the student health insurance web-site,
and then completing the waiver accessible from that same page. The deadline
to do all this is 9 October, 2009. If you have not waived the Basic plan by
this date, you will be responsible for it – meaning financially responsible,
of course.
If you would like to upgrade to the Prescription Advantage plan you must do
so from the same form, at the same place, in accord with the same deadline.
If, however, your health insurance does not meet the stated requirements, or
you do not have health insurance at all, and you’re fine with sticking to
the Basic plan, you are encouraged to confirm your enrollment (again, from
the same place). Or, for the fatalistic among you, you may do nothing – you
will be enrolled in, and become responsible for (meaning financially, of
course) the Basic plan.
If, when you are looking over your itemized tuition expenses, you notice a
Student Life Fee in addition to your health-care expenses (or, having waived
that, seemingly in lieu of your health-care expenses), I am sorry to say that
this is no mistake. A mandatory fee of $238/quarter will be assessed of
you. This fee helps underwrite many of the health/wellness workshops that
are free to all students, as well as supporting the Student Counseling
Resource Service (SCRS) – a, likewise, free service available to all UofC
students.
While we’re on the subject of ‘some-things-mandatory,’ you all must submit
proof of immunization to the University no later than 16 October, 2009. If
the University does not have proof of immunization by this date, a hold will
be placed on your account, and you will not be able to register for courses
until this hold is lifted. Yet, immunizations are not too hard to come by,
here. If you need them, TDap, MMR, and Tetnas shots will be administered
for a paltry $25 each on Saturdays, 3 October and 7 November, 2009, from 10
am – 2 pm at the Student Care Center (SCC). And, daredevils, yes – 7
November is, indeed, just under the wire for Winter Quarter Registration.
