With yearly tuition increases, national inflation, and an inaccessible job market for both undergraduate and graduate students, basic needs such as healthcare, housing, and education have become almost unattainable for the average American. As Bennington students, it has become increasingly clear how lucky we are to inhabit this campus and receive a rigorous education. However, reality still seeps through the walls of higher education for many low-income and working-class students. This term, Bennington College has introduced a new mandatory health insurance policy that covers routine and preventive care through United Healthcare.
Last May, psychiatric nurse practitioner Wendy Segrent announced her departure from Bennington College after 4 years of care. For many, this was the first sign of the college’s attempt to transform the health center. Announced by a perfunctory email sent at the end of the term, Bennington College announced its gutted and rebuilt health service policy and program. In previous years, a mandatory health center fee was anywhere between $100 and $200 per term. The new required student health insurance policy for all students costs almost $2,500 a year, which covers routine and preventative care.
The insurance company had a waiver form, in which you could file for exemption by proving you had current insurance that met their criteria. However, those who have Medicaid policies, HMOs, CHIP, and traveler’s insurance do not qualify for the waiver. Insurance policies are required to cover routine, preventive, and emergency care at Bennington College’s Student Wellness Center and at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center. They examine your insurance to view your coverage and to verify if their providers are in-network. Larger insurance companies such as Cigna and Blue Cross Blue Shield are accepted on the condition that policies align with all providers at the Student Wellness Center and at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center.
Bennington College’s reasoning behind the implementation of this policy was to “stay in line” with Vermont’s colleges and higher education institutions nationwide that require institutional healthcare insurance. The Bennington College website states that financial aid is not available to help cover this cost. Therefore, your financial aid statement and eventual bill for the term include the cost of the insurance. Upon the email’s announcement, I felt the anxiety of other students buzzing around me. Each place I went–the dining hall, Roz’s Cafe, and Commons Lawn — I began hearing conversations surrounding the new policy.
At the beginning of the term, the new psychiatric prescribing nurse practitioner, Anna Leavey, was announced via email, indicating that her availability is exclusively on Telehealth from 9 AM to 3 PM on Fridays. Following this announcement was a statement declaring that there is not currently a general medical provider, but the college hopes to hire one by early to mid-October. Most of Bennington College’s student body is out-of-state, making the campus a diverse pool of people from the biggest cities in the world, small rural towns, and everything in between. This new policy allows care at any medical facility as long as they accept United Health Care. As a student-run publication, we thought it was important to investigate how this change has impacted our students overall. To allow students to express their experiences and opinions freely, I have decided to keep interviewees anonymous for this article.
“As someone who lives less than an hour away from the school, my current insurance policy covers routine and preventive care at the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center. When I talked to United Healthcare for students, they told me my insurance needed to cover all specific practitioners that the school hires. I emailed the health center for a list of said providers, and they sent a list of 4 people. I called my insurance and checked with them, and none of them were in the network, so I wasn’t able to contest the denial of my waiver. However, I don’t know if all of the four people they listed are currently here. So I’m paying $2,500 because my insurance doesn’t cover more than 3 people, whom I wouldn’t need to contact. It should be my choice if I wanted care from these specific people. I wouldn’t have had to take out the loans I had to take out if it weren’t for this. And this wasn’t grounds for a financial aid appeal!”
“As someone who hasn’t had health insurance since I graduated high school, I feel grateful that I can access it on campus. Having everything in one place feels convenient.”
“For people who don’t have health insurance, I think it is great. Having health insurance so readily available and accessible on campus is great. Though for people who already have insurance but get denied, it is not accessible and can severely impact them financially. As a concept, it is a good idea, but in practice it’s tricky.” This student also suggested that required payment could be a sliding scale based on the student’s ability to pay.
“Healthcare on campus has already been poor, and there has been no initiative to make it accessible for everyone. Every health services experience I have heard from people consists of them talking to a provider while having AI take notes for them, being told they can’t treat them, or simply not being able to get an appointment when needed. Am I paying for a robot to give me advice? Also, getting an appointment at the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center is impossible–there is an insane waiting list. The way in which the director of health services has dealt with all the applications is inappropriate.”
“This new policy is not designed for students’ well-being, it’s being treated as a black-and-white scenario. My waiver application was rejected two weeks into August, and there wasn’t anything I could do. It is strange to put this charge on your bill for fall and not break it up between the two terms per year. The nerve of Bennington College to tell the house chairs first before telling the student body right at the end of term is unfair. Tuition has already been going up two grand a year, and it is strange to not incorporate student aid into this. This whole thing has been so incredibly vague.”
“I remember last term you couldn’t access psychiatric services because they didn’t accept new patients, so they denied people appointments. Now we don’t have anyone at the health center. Urgent care is too busy for you to even be looked at. We’re a college campus, and there are no available walk-ins. It just feels like another way for the school to make up the money that they don’t have.”
“I feel confident knowing that I will be insured both on and off campus, but I hesitate to promote the ‘greatness’ of the program because of how abruptly it was introduced to and forced onto students and their families.”
“The way in which the health center has dealt with the transition from the ‘old’ health center to this new program has felt rushed and uncaring. Students need their medications. I can’t imagine Bennington students a month or two in, without their medication.”
Nestled into the green mountainscapes of Southern Vermont, students’ access to necessary resources already feels limited compared to larger, more populated institutions. The gnawing subject of the healthcare policy has ruptured public concern throughout the Bennington College community, and seems to be a continuing source of tension among students in financial, emotional, and physical need. As the institution navigates a tumultuous economic and academic climate, working-class students will continue to adapt and seek the same “luxuries” as the ruling class in higher education.
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