Mike Russell wrote:
> Many of our students do not have private medical insurance.

Good point.  But, many do ... whether they are "traditional" younger 
students who are covered under their parents' insurance, or whether they 
are older students who have their own insurance through an employer, or 
whatever ...

> We now are requiring students to pay an athletics fee every semester. Why don't we have a health care fee?

Because two wrongs don't make a right?

The athletics fee is a horrible precedent.  Most of the students I know 
couldn't care less about athletics, yet they are now forced to pay this 
fee to subsidize sports teams (expensive, but still losing football in 
particular).  Actually, the term "fee" is a misnomer.  Money you pay to 
make use of a service that you *want* to use is indeed a "fee."  But 
money you are forced to pay whether or not you use the services being 
offered is a "tax."

> When I was a freshman in college I spent three or four days in the college infirmary with the flu. The cost was borne by a mandatory health fee.

I remember such fees, not particularly fondly, though I dimly remember 
going to the school clinic maybe once or twice.  Of course, that was 
then and this is now, and the whole health care situation is a lot 
different.  As tuition and other "fees" continue to rise, I'd be loath 
to impose yet another tax on our students for a service that relatively 
few of them will ever use.

> Perhaps there is something about this problem that I do not understand.

I sympathize with your desire to do something to help sick students, and 
if someone were to propose a *voluntary* health fee I could support it 
... just as I could support a *voluntary* fee that would provide 
admission to sports events, or any other optional activity.  Here's a 
radical idea: let's allow those who make use of a given service to pay 
for it, and leave the others alone.

Joe

-- 
Joe Dumas, Ph.D.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Computer Science & Electrical Engineering
Dept. 2302
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN 37403
Phone:  (423) 425-4084
Fax:  (423) 425-5442
E-mail:  [log in to unmask]

Notice:  This correspondence should be considered a public record
and subject to public inspection pursuant to the Tennessee Public
Records Act.

"One man with courage is a majority." -- Thomas Jefferson

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