Fuck Student Health Insurance

Posted on: July 23, 2008

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I recieved my bill for the next semester today. For once, I was shocked to see that I owed them $1,057.

Yes, I was shocked that UB was still asking me for money.

See, when I had gotten my funds letter two months ago, I thought I had everything noted correctly that they would owe me, a good amount to cover books and then some. Pell Grants are awesome!

But clearly, that was not the case when I saw my bill.

I found the offending line: “Student Med. Ins.” Then it hit me. I remembered that starting last year, UB’s Student Medical Insurance policy changed. Rather than outright waive it when you started as a freshman, and work on the honor system about you telling them if your coverage was dropped, they started requiring you to waive it every year with their new provider.

See, it is New York State law that if you are ina SUNY school, you must have health insurance. My take on it is, tons of people were lying about them having health insurance, or never telling UB that they lost coverage, and the burden of covering for these students got to be too much for the university. So instead of a mostly opt-in program, they decided to fuck everyone sideways and change policy to an opt-out program.

So I waived the insurance last year, and thought “If they kept it this easy every year, this might not be too bad. Making sure everyone has health insurance is a good thing to do!”

Boy was I wrong. This year’s form was just a little bit different from last year’s, including a few more questions that made it hard for me to do by myself. Last year, all I had to ask for was an insurance card, since all information was there. This year, I had to ask for the card and what the hell our deductible was at.

Why the fuck do they ask me that? They have everything needed to call Blue Cross Blue Shield and find out for themselves. It’s a terrible question, anyway, since it is very vague in terms of an all-encompassing plan like mine. Which deductible do they want? My prescription? Emergency care? Doctor’s visits? Lab work? These are all different amounts.

They want to know every possible bit of information about my provider, from name, address, contact number, and web site. All I should have to say is “Blue Cross Blue Shield” and they should have that already. Hell, in a perfect world, they should have last year’s information and ask me if it’s changed, but that would be too convenient.

At the amount of information they want, it just looks like they just want any reason to say “Sorry, you’re gonna have to stick with this.” and force me to pay for their insurance that I don’t need or want.

Sorry UB, but there are better ways to cover your asses from students that lie.

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The Shakedown: Part 2; The Aftermath, For Now

Posted on: July 21, 2008

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So while I was at a family gathering today, I had a few people ask me about what has happened with the situation I described here. They were curious since I have not actually had a real update since then. I figured I would post, with possible greater detail, what I told them, for other family members and other interested parties (I know one of my aunts from out-of-state e-mailed me about this, and Scott Leffler, a local radio personality and family friend commented about it. Showed me who reads this!)

Basically, since the incident I decribed over a month ago (It’s been that long?,) I’ve only been bothered once. She asked me, rather bluntly, if I was reconsidering my decision about opening a account with them. I, even more bluntly responded saying “No, and I never intend on doing business with you.” She proceeds to ask me what my name is (she seems to be pretty terrible at remembering it,) and as I start saying “I don’t have to tell you that.” she, quite rudely, looks right over at my nametag, which I had on, because despite being on break, I’m still obligated to help a stray customer, if I can. She then says “Well, Bryan, I’ll get you to change your mind later.”

After about three weeks, she’s done nothing to change my mind, and I have yet to budge on my stance. I’m still happily doing business with my current bank, no matter what unpercieved “inconvenience” it is for me.

For those wondering if she was ever true on her word; she wasn’t. Full of shit, as they say. Not only have my hours stayed the same, I was given more hours, due to the rush around the July 4th holiday. Now that things have calmed down again, I’m still at my normal 20-30 hours for the summer.

What I’ve done since then, to protect myself, is a few very simple things. For one, I take off my nametag during breaks. No matter what, I take it off while going to punch for the break, and put it back on when punching back in. I’m sure management might not take too kindly to it, but that’s okay, if I have to explain that it’s for my own protection from harassment, they’ll only have to get more deeper involved with it. THe rest is all about me being more confident. I walk by the bank area with a body language showing that I’m not interested in doing any business there, while on my way to do what I need to do. And if I do get bothered again, I’ll give a very stern answer of “No.” and inform them that it is my final decision and I will not entertain any more questions from them.

Other notable things since then:

I had a road test at the beginning of this month, and failed it. By 5 points (35 total,) to add insult to injury. The list of infractions were for poor judgement at intersections (because slowing just a bit too much is as good as stopping!,) 3-point turns and parallel parking (I just barely hit the curb,) and for, get this one, driving too slow. Now, I was, and still am, fine with the first two points, but I think the driving too slow was such a total judgment call. She says she didn’t think I was ever going past 20 mph, but I know I was. The difference? I decided to drive my parents SUV, a larger vehicle that feels slower, especially in comparison to smaller sedans, which is what most people use for their test. I decided to use an SUV because, historically, while practicing, I was better at parallel parking than in our smaller car (a lot of good that did me!)

But of course, I can’t complain, since I’m not the one that’s employed by the DMV to administer these totally, and completely, unrealistic tests (who honestly does more than one parallel park a year?)

But my major gripe is just simply how they described their reasoning for giving the infractions. They’re not legally obliged to, so they just say “This is what you got, so there.” But the thing is, this does you no good. It doesn’t help you get better. That’s because they’re also not legally obliged to help you pass the test, either.

So I spent the better part of an hour sulking cursing the world at this evil witch of a woman (who I think is the typical “fails everyone” tester, anyway,) when it hits me. The moment of genious. What I need to do to pass this stupid thing. It was simple, really, and I wish they would have just out and said it: I just need to get more confident in my driving.

It makes sense, really. Most of my driving is all straight down Transit from Lockport to Amherst and back. It gets you really attentive, used to traffic, used to lane changing, and used to driving at different speeds, but it doesn’t help you get good at making good turns at intersections, and having good judgement at when you should do them. So to prepare for the test, I’m just going to drive around Lockport, no “Turn here,” or “Turn there,” I make all of my own turns, at lights, signs or no signs. If I can get used to doing that all around at city speeds (30 mph) quickly and efficiently, there goes 25 points off the first test, which, if it were to stay the same, I will pass. For good measure, I will try parallel parking some more, since it’s so formulaic, anyway.

I just don’t know why they couldn’t phrase it that way, though. Is it really that much harder to say “You just need to get more confident in your driving.” rather than saying “You need more practice.”? It’s a lot more helpful, and maybe it will reduce the number of terrible drivers in the future, you know, by giving them helpful advice to pass the next test, and be competent drivers afterward, rather than doing “just what it takes.”

At least I know what I need to do, though. Besides, most people who don’t pay to learn the test (driving instruction,) fail the first time because they don’t know what to expect, right?

I also resolved to stick with one car for practice and then the test. I won’t be driving an SUV, that’s for sure!

Maybe the DMV will be nice and give me an early birthday present at the beginning of next month when I take my second (and last free) test.

Other than that, not much else to report, other than the few purchases here there, from a new (and much nicer!) desk for my room, a cool gadget for my Nintendo DS lite, and only the most awesome DVD of the most awesome show to come from Japan in the past year. I thought about doing a few other entries over the past while, like about how much I hate my job and how much I want to get out of it (and I will try to!) to someplace better in the store, but that’s just on details that are still tentative in my head, and if I can actually get a damned drivers license. So here’s to more positive stuff in the future!

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