Graduate students appeal for affordable dental benefits

One year ago, a group of University graduate students began pushing for across-the-board dental benefits for faculty, staff and graduate students. Though the University is set to offer its employees a highly discounted dental plan in January, graduate students have yet to strike their own deal with the University.

Laurel Harvey, the University's director of risk management, said the plan will allow policy holders to pay their premiums with their pre-tax salary dollars. She added that the plan, which is with Horizon BlueCross BlueShield of New Jersey, is for employees only, making students ineligible.

She said, however, that there are other options for graduate students seeking dental coverage. Though these students do not qualify for the employee plan, Harvey said Horizon offers a similar plan on an individual basis.

"It's not quite as rich as the employee plan, but it uses the same network of dentists and there are discounts," she said.

Harvey admitted, however, that "we have not done an in-depth market study of dental plans for students."

Karthick Ramakrishnan GS, who has spearheaded the effort to secure dental benefits for graduate students, said leaving students without affordable dental care is dangerous. He cited a recent survey conducted by the Graduate Student Government that said 60 percent of those surveyed did not get basic dental care because of the cost.

"We don't make that much money and it does not make medical sense to have bad dental health," Ramakrishnan said. "We thought that a university that says it cares about its students should provide dental benefits."

Ramakrishnan said though graduate students are not eligible for the employee plan, they want a cheaper alternative to the one Horizon is offering.

He said the employee plan would charge members a total of $106 for two cleanings, one set of x-rays and two fillings that occur all in one year. He estimated that under the individual plan that is being offered to the students it would cost $330 for the same benefits.

"That's a significant cost difference, especially when you're talking about graduate students making $10,000 a year, which is below the poverty line," Ramakrishnan said.

Harvey said in the future the University could go back to Horizon and ask it to draw up a student plan.

Ramakrishnan said a substantive dental care plan for students would benefit the University in several ways, including attracting new dentists to the area. He cited information from Horizon stating that there are only 23 dentists in the 10-mile radius around the area with an 08540 zip code.