I admire Joe's Libertarian constancy. But I agree with Mike. It's outrageous
that we have students on this campus who lack even the most basic health
insurance. At least once a year I hear about some UTC students who, having
no recourse to affordable low-level health care, allow themselves to get so
sick they have to be hauled off to the ER.
Just recently the SGA enthusiastically endorsed a plan that would allow the
university to charge students an additional $40 per term to cover the cost
of a swimming pool for the new Wellness Center. I wonder: would the SGA, if
given a chance, endorse a student fee to cover the cost of treating all UTC
students for free at the UTC PolyClinic? Thinking bigger, what would the
SGA say to a plan to expand the PolyClinic into a real infirmary?
I know fitness centers, pools, and fancy workout facilities are sexy. But
I'd wager a good number of our students would also endorse a fee (even a
"tax"!) to cover the cost of full-service, free student health care for all
current UTC students.
Maybe our colleague Dr. Gregory Heath has some ideas on this?
Gavin Townsend
Faculty Senate Pres.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Joe Dumas" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 3:07 PM
Subject: Re: [UTCSTAFF] Student Health
> 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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