The Associated Students of Madison's Student Council'the \voice"" of UW-Madison students'has once again struck the tune of hypocrisy. Known best for fighting the UW System Board of Regents against tuition hikes, then self-imposing taxes on students through seg fees, ASM is now trying to raise the tuition of students once again.
ASM is urging UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley and other administrators to support an opt-out system for student health insurance. What that means is every student's tuition bill would be significantly higher each semester because health insurance would be added onto the bill.
Currently, student health insurance is an opt-in system where, if you are interested in health insurance, you can enroll in the program. If you are not interested, nothing is required of you.
Under the new plan, students would have the option to check a box on their tuition bill if they did not want the insurance and would then not have to pay that part of their tuition bill. Otherwise, if you did not check the box, or simply were not paying attention to your tuition bill'except for the total cost'you would be charged for and enrolled in the system.
The claim by ASM and members of University Health Services is that by charging every student, the cost of student health insurance would decrease for students who did want to participate, while anyone already covered through their parents' insurance, work or some other means would not have to participate in the program.
The flaw of the system is apparent: Health insurance can be offered at a lower rate through the new system because officials expect people who do not need the insurance to just pay their tuition unsuspectingly and not check the box. If only those who really needed the insurance sign up (as is the case now), then the number of people enrolled would stay about the same. So if the cost of health insurance went down and the same number of students sign up as before, revenues from this insurance would decrease. Decreased revenue is not exactly the ideal way to solve a deficit.
Another plan ASM is looking into is trying to strong-arm other UW campuses'through United Council'into starting a system-wide student insurance program. Again, under the premise that the more people enrolled in the plan, the lower the costs.
The problem with this plan is we are being selfish and trying to shift the burden of our deficit onto students at other UW schools. In order to subsidize UW-Madison students, there would be large increases in the cost of student health insurance at every other campus in the UW System.
There are several ironies in this whole debate over health insurance and ASM's willingness to give students a voice.
Our student government also fights against tuition increases, but raises our fees every time the opportunity arises. This time it is even worse because ASM is supporting a program that relies on uninformed students.
While ASM is more than fine with an opt-out system for health insurance, they decry such a notion for seg fees. For seg fees, the only acceptable choice for our student government is to give students no choice. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. But forcing a student to fund something they disagree with is a violation of that student's right to freely express him- or herself. Only giving the rights outlined in the First Amendment of the Constitution to selected student populations, however, is the desired position of our student government.
ASM needs to take a consistent position on these important issues affecting students and the affordability of higher education. Support both health insurance and seg fees to be part of an opt-out system on this campus; stop trying to force something unwanted on other campuses; or continue to limit students' right to free expression and freedom of choice'but then do not make some students pay for health insurance they do not want.
