CLARIFICATION: Under the new insurance plan, the out-of-pocket maximum for graduate students is $10,000. The previous plan capped the maximum at $2,500. Students will pay 20 percent of each bill until $10,000 has been spent.

Two major changes in graduate student health insurance have left some students reeling about what to do next.

“We had a basic policy to begin with, and now it’s a terrible policy,” said Will Rooks, Graduate Student Association president. “It’s dangerous and irresponsible.”

The Board of Regents announced changes this summer, and Rooks argues it left little time for students to look for another plan. The first change forces students to pay one fifth of all health care bills costing up to $10,000. At $10,000, the insurance company covers the full cost. In the previous plan, $2,500 was the cutoff for insurance to foot the bill.

The second change to the policy lowers the benefits available to dependants from $300,000 to $50,000.

“For graduate students who support children or a spouse, one catastrophic event or procedure could cost more than $50,000, and then what do you do?” Rooks said. “If they then shop elsewhere for insurance, that’s considered a pre-existing condition and costs a lot more.”

Because graduate assistants are required to use health insurance, some students feel as if they have been “backed into a corner,” Rooks said. He and Robert Shostak, vice president for GSA, researched various facets of health insurance plans – out-of-pocket maximums, deductibles, areas of coverage – at peer and aspirational institutions. They found that most universities maintain out-of-pocket maximums between $1,000 and $2,000 and the only ones that stretch to $5,000 are for out-of-network providers.

Rooks and Shostak plan to present these numbers to members of the Board of Regents, University administration and a Georgia General Assembly appropriations subcommittee. “Debates at peer institutions are about covering vision and dental, not out-of-pocket maximums,” he said. “They’re talking about how to improve, and we’re taking a step in the wrong direction.”

Deanna Cozart, a graduate student mastering in workforce education, said students were not informed of the changes until was in place Aug. 1. Cozart said she is most concerned about the out-of-pocket increase.

“I had a baby in June and I maxed out the $2500 from all the prenatal appointments and medical costs,” she said. “Coming up with that much money for medical costs was kind of a stretch. But we were able to handle it. But $10,000, that’s a lot of money. There’s no way to budget for that.”

The Board of Regents announced that only 21 students in the state surpassed the maximum last year. About 2000 graduate assistants are enrolled in the plan at the University. Tom Gausvik, associate vice president for Human Resources, said he can’t address why the changes were made but did acknowledge that less than one percent of the students in the state are affected by the new plan.

“When premiums go up, we have to decide whether we’re going to absorb that increase in premiums,” he said. “It affects so few students within the plan. My understanding is premiums went up six percent. Had they not [approved the plan], premiums would go up 12 percent.”

The University helps to pay 40 percent of the semester costs for graduate students on the mandatory plan.

“We’re the only institution [in the state] that pays something,” he said. “We value the graduate system. We’re always looking at what we’re able to do.”

James Hilliard, assistant professor for risk management and insurance at Terry College of Business, said the University coverage is competitive for the current market.

“[The changes will] only effect students if they have a lot of health care expenses in a year,” Hilliard said. “Most people are going to see $1000 to 3000 expenses in a year. It’s not going to effect most people.”

Hilliard said the decrease in coverage for dependents will also not effect most students.

“[The budget for dependents] is very unlikely to be breached. Typical individual health care expenses outside of catastrophic health care emergencies is where students would have to pay more,” he said.

The University’s graduate insurance policy’s premium costs have increased approximately $30 in the past three years. Rob Hoyt, department head of the risk management and insurance department of Terry College of Business, said the increase is due to health insurance increases that have been occurring across the market.

“If they kept everything the same you would see a significant increase [in premiums], so the fact that it didn’t go up much is probably due to the changes they made,” he said.

Hoyt said students could “shop around” for other insurance policies if unsatisfied with the University’s plan.

“But it’s very dangerous to go without health insurance, so students should have some sort of catastrophic insurance,” Hoyt said.

Although the student body is understanding about the economy and budget cuts, graduate health insurance needs to be a bigger priority, Rooks said.

“This basic good isn’t just a prerequisite; it’s a recruitment tool to get the best and the brightest,” he said. “We’re looking to grow our graduate numbers by adding a medical school and engineering school, and this isn’t in the interest of long-term plans. If this is our focal point, this kind of policy needs to be on the forefront of discussion.”

For Nicole Camastra, an English doctoral student, the changes make an extreme difference in her ability to pay for surgery and chemotherapy bills. She was diagnosed with cancer in January, received chemotherapy treatments, underwent surgery in June and expects another surgery in October.

“It’s not that I mind helping to pay for my bills; it’s my body,” she said. “It’s that I’m taking on a lion’s share when the out-of-pocket maximum is increased to $10,000 and I only make $14,000 a year.”

Camastra told Rooks her story this week in the hopes that it will help as he lobbies against the change.

“The Board of Regents said only 21 exceeded the maximum, which is not a lot, but if you personalize it and attach a word like cancer to it, it’s difficult to dismiss the effects,” she said. “I wish they had thought through it more and reached more of a compromise.”

- Daniel Burnett contributed to this story.