By Tony Wagener and Niki Messmore

As we are sure most of you have heard, the Board of Trustees of BGSU last Friday passed legislation that makes it mandatory for all students to have health insurance beginning next academic year.

Many of you probably also read in newspapers Saturday morning that the Undergraduate Student Government supported this measure.

As members of USG, we want to clarify our personal opinions about the new policy.

As senators, we both agree that it is to the benefit of every student to have adequate health insurance.

This new policy proposal was brought to the Senate last March by Dr. Egleman of the Student Health Center. We worked long and hard to hammer out all questions that we had regarding this plan, including having Dr. Egleman attend several of our meetings.

Many of us had concerns regarding those students who would be financially burdened by this new plan.

When the time came for us to vote on whether we supported Student Health Services in their quest for mandatory insurance, an amendment was added to our legislation by former Sen. Maria Khoury.

This amendment stated that USG felt that the mandatory health insurance policy be required to come with a “need based waiver,” or an opportunity for low-income students to be released from the requirement of paying for mandatory insurance.

Even before this amendment was added to our resolution the bill still called for Student Financial Aid to “work with the Student Health Center-to provide assistance to students-“

All leaders of the University who were involved in this decision were forwarded a copy of USG’s resolution (including the Office of Student Financial Aid).

While we continue to believe that having health insurance is in the best interest of every member of the University community, we also understand that for some an added expense of an estimated $1,200 is enough to cause serious financial hardship.

The mission of this institution (as we see it), as a public university, is to provide top-notch educational opportunities for all students regardless of socio-economic status, race, creed or gender.

Not allowing for a need-based waiver is a serious mistake that has the potential to affect the educational opportunities of many students.

This is a mistake that BGSU should not be permitted to make.

We realize that the Board of Trustees merely passed legislation that requires health insurance and that no formal plan has yet been decided upon.

But we firmly attest to the fact that both Student Health Services and Student Financial Aid have an obligation to find a way to waive this requirement for students who would find hardship affording this insurance and still attend the University.

We call on those leaders who will be working out the details of this plan to ensure that the added financial expense of health insurance is not detrimental to some students wishing to attend the University.

We feel that the best way for this to be accomplished is the addition of a need-based waiver.

While it is true that we supported the case for mandatory health insurance, we want it to be clear that this support comes only after an exception is made for those students who would be financially burdened by this added expense.

If you have any questions regarding our position on this issue, or have a need or concern you would like to express to us, please feel free to contact us at any time.

Send comments to Tony at [email protected] or to Niki at [email protected]