Preview of story 3

When talking about student health insurance at MSU, people have different thoughts and opinions. But the most concerned problem is: Student health insurance at MSU---to help us more or to let us pay more?

The student health insurance at MSU is combined with two different plans: Student Health Insurance Base Plan and Student Health Insurance Graduate Assistant Plan. The Base Plan cost domestic students $1,664 per year and international students $1,449 per year; the graduate assistant plan is free for students only since MSU will contribute $2,300 annually for individuals. But for those who have families, it will cost them from $798 to $7,721 per year.

Yahang Zhang, an accounting major international student, said that although she has already bought the insurance, she still want to change because of some service that she will never use as well as the high price.

“So, it’s a little bit waste for me, and um…for me it’s a little bit too expensive.” Zhang said.

Not only the students who have the insurance but also those who don’t have the health insurance at MSU think that the price is expensive.

Samantha Shuert, a Japanese and packaging major sophomore, said that she has a health insurance at her mother’s company and she doesn’t know very much about the health insurance other than the high price.

“I think it is expensive over price for college students who…especially for many of them who don’t have health insurance probably have it because it’s too expensive for their family.” She said.

With this problem, Tabatha Dixon, the supervisor of Benefit Service Center of MSU’s Human Resource Department, said that the price of the insurance is reasonable.

“If you compare the cost to students who buy an individual plan with the same coverage level, ” Dixon said, “it is pretty, um, reasonable.”