Last night, AMS Council approved a referendum to increase the AMS/GSS Health and Dental Plan fee by $52.50 — an increase the AMS said is needed due to an unsustainable depletion of the plan's reserve.
Students currently pay $277.5 per policy year into the plan, with annual increases of up to five per cent that do not have to go to referendum.
According to AMS VP Finance Lawrence Liu, the per capita usage of the plan is less than $277.5, then the difference goes into the Health and Dental Reserve Fund. However, if the students claim more than $277.5 in a year, then the AMS pays insurer Pacific Blue Cross the difference from the Health and Dental Reserve Fund.
In the last two years, the AMS has seen a significant increase in claims for mental health counselling sessions, leading to the depletion of the reserve at an exponential rate. Student mental health claims have gone from $5.16 per capita in the 2016/17 academic year to $74.01 in 2021/22.
In January 2022, mental health coverage was increased from $1,000 to $1,500. This was decreased again to $1,000 in September, but soon returned to $1,250 following criticism from students.
“Last year $3.4 million was claimed for mental health counselling sessions alone," said Sophia Haque, the director of partnerships and development at Studentcare.Studentcare acts as an intermediary between the AMS and Pacific Blue Cross, helping to negotiate and implement the insurance plan.
“Utilising these plan reserves to respond to this was exactly what those funds are meant to do," Haque said. "They are the rainy day funds. Having said that, the rainy day funds need to be sustainable. So you can't keep perpetually subsidizing the cost of the plan to the tune of two and a half million dollars.”
The dollar amount of the reserve was $7,803,480.60 at the start of this fiscal year, but the AMS has pulled $2.5 million from the reserve this year to pay for the difference in claimed amount and the amount students are paying into the plan. According to Liu, at this rate with current coverage, the reserve would last only two more years.
Haque said there are two ways to stop this depletion. One would be to decrease the plan’s coverage and the other would be to increase its fee.
“It's a matter of asking students what they prioritize and value the most -—the coverage or keeping the costs low because we would have to sacrifice one for the other," Haque said. "And it's just unfortunate [because] it's a difficult time of the year for students.”
As a result, the Health and Dental Committee proposed the $52.50 referendum item, which the AMS believes is enough to keep the plan sustainable at its current level of coverage. Students will vote on the referendum item during AMS Elections from March 6—10.
If the item does not pass, the referendum item reads "significant cuts in coverage" will be made.