Because of a complication with the Affordable Care Act, graduate teaching assistants and graduate assistants will no longer receive a subsidy from LSU to offset the cost of health insurance.
According to Graduate School Dean Michelle Massé’s letter to students on Aug. 28, some regulations under the act targeting small businesses were also applied to higher education, which could result in fines for the university of $100 per day per student receiving a subsidy. Under the new rules, small businesses and universities cannot give workers subsidies specifically to buy health insurance.
The Office of Academic Affairs provided the $700 annual subsidies, and were used by about half of LSU’s graduate students, Massé said. The amount has remained stagnant over the last several years, even though the cost of the insurance has increased over the past three years from $600 to more than $1,000 per semester, said Vernon Dunn, a Student Government senator for the graduate school.
Graduate students were informed about the change via email on May 29, Dunn said. According to a letter from the Council of Graduate Schools, the rule went into effect on July 1.
Updated information was sent out on July 24, Dunn said. The email said students would still be able to purchase the LSU-AIG insurance plan without the subsidy until August of 2016. Next fall, graduate students will have to purchase insurance on the independent market or through the Affordable Care Act website.
The July 24 email also said LSUlooked to funnel the subsidy money back into the graduate assistant and teaching assistant stipends, which have not grown to compensate for recent
tuition and fee hikes, Dunn said.
“Tuition is going up, but we can’t control that. Fees are going up, and we can kind of argue against that,” Dunn said. “But these things are going up, but the stipends are not.”
For this semester, the funds previously dedicated for the health insurance subsidies has been returned to the individual colleges and the graduate school, Massé’s letter said. The colleges will decide how the funds will be used.
For example, Dunn said his department, biology, will add $550 to stipends for some teaching assistants. Vice-president of the Graduate Student Association Vicky Kelly said her college, the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, would use the money to increase stipends for future students.
The problem isn’t unique to LSU, Massé said. Schools across the nation are having the same issue. When graduate students at the University of Missouri lost their stipends, they reached out to U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill.
McCaskill worked with the university to develop a plan to provide quality teaching assistants a one-time fellowship of $1,200 to offset costs.
Missouri’s solution might not work in Louisiana, Dunn said, as some legislators in the state do not support higher education funding and healthcare issues. Since the funds have been sent to the different colleges, Massé said it would be too late to divert that money to fellowships.
For a long-term solution, Dunn said students should look toward the gubernatorial election. By rallying behind a candidate who supports higher education students could help solve some of their problems.
When Massé served as the director of graduate studies in English, she asked one graduate student, Stacey Amo, to research the topic for her work assignment. After learning about the new effects of the ACA, she asked Amo to expand her work with an FAQ for graduate
students.
The graduate school has also set up an email line for any inquiries about the health
insurance, Massé said. Some graduate students also distributed a statement about the insurance to better inform others about their options.
Making sure graduate students can afford insurance is crucial, Massé said, and the graduate school will help students navigate this new terrain until the act is amended.
“They need health insurance. Anything we can do to make this possible, I absolutely support,” Massé said. “I’m hoping this will be figured out through federal policy, but someone will have appendicitis before that happens.”