Dependent Healthcare Rally

Over the past six years, Stanford University has raised the rates of dependent health care by 80%. In 2013-2014 a graduate student with two children and a spouse would have paid $494 a month to insure their dependents; in 2019-2020 they are paying $893 a month. For the past two years, Stanford’s student health insurance administrators have threatened to cut the dependent healthcare program entirely, citing rising insurance costs. Administration officials claim costs are rising because enrollment is decreasing, but by increasing costs without increasing stipends, they are pushing families off the plan and creating what the insurance industry calls a “death spiral.”

“My experience as a PhD student with children at Stanford can be described as juggling act on a fraying tightrope without a net to break my fall,” said PhD Candidate Mei Li Inouye in a testimonial to the administration officials.

If the dependent healthcare plan is eliminated, graduate students without coverage through a spouse’s employer will be forced to enroll their families in Covered California, Medi-Cal, or other public plans. This approach is deeply troubling to many members of the Stanford community for several reasons. Most plans through Covered California are unaffordable on graduate studentstipends and “affordable” options have such high deductibles that families are forced to forgocare except in cases of emergency.

A graduate student, who wished to remain anonymous, described her situation: “At thistime, my husband is on a high-deductible plan for emergency health services only. Every time he gets sick or injured, we worry about the bills we would incur if we visit a doctor, and so we have avoided doing so in times where we should have gone in to see someone. Considering the financial situation we are in and the high cost of healthcare, we have been considering delaying having children as well.”

By failing to provide affordable healthcare for graduate students' children, universities like Stanford reinforce the structural barriers to women's advancement in the academy. While women constitute 50% of Stanford’s undergraduate population, they represent only 42% of the graduate student population, and only 30% of the faculty. Women are typically in graduate school during their healthiest childbearing years and simply cannot delay the possibility of having children until after they complete their education. This is an issue that disproportionately affects women, and its effects are felt nation-wide.

The rising cost of Stanford’s dependent health care plans and the University’s threats to eliminate dependent coverage also pose an equity issue for non-citizens, who make up a significant portionof Stanford’s graduate population. An already-difficult situation has been made even more difficult due to the immigration rule-change by the Trump administration on Oct 15, which threatens to non-citizens who use public assistance as “public charges,” jeopardizing non-citizen residents’ current or future visa status or legal residency.

Another anonymous graduate student described the impact of this rule change: “I had to decide between potentially risking not being allowed into the country, because I insured my child on Medi-Cal so that she could have regular check-ups and normal healthcare that I think every child deserves, or maintaining a ‘safe’ immigration profile for myself and my husband.”

Together, the students who gathered in solidarity demonstrated the deep effects of the issue, not only among graduate students with children and spouses, but throughout the entire graduate student community. They called on Stanford, as a leading institution of higher learning, to serve as a leader in confronting issues such as this one that contribute to gender-based and non-citizen inequity, and to provide proper care for the most vulnerable members of its University community.

Telling their stories in front of the Stanford administration officials on Nov 8, the graduate students affixed adhesive bandages to a large banner: “1000 BAND-AIDS FOR 1000 SIGNATURES—DEPENDENT HEALTH CARE NEEDS MORE THAN A BAND-AID SOLUTION.”

You can also view a video about the rally below.

Press Coverage:

• Stanford Daily News Coverage: https://www.stanforddaily.com/2019/11/11/graduate-students-rally-for-dependent-healthcare-coverage/
• Stanford Daily Op-Ed: https://www.stanforddaily.com/2019/11/19/stanford-support-your-students-with-dependents-through-affordable-healthcare-plans/
• Podcast Series: https://suhealthcarepodcast.weebly.com/