GSA changes graduate student health and benefits plan

On August 15, the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) announced that for the next year, Studywell will be the health and benefits provider for U of A graduate students. 

The new plan is said to be an exact match to the previous plan with Desjardin. But, there are a few new changes. The new plan saves individual students $10, there is a new website and app to use for claiming and finding information about coverage, and there is increased coverage for dental. 

Aashish Kumar, president of the GSA, said the change is due to the previous five-year contract with Desjardin ending. The GSA chose to seek a new plan with a new company after students urged them to. 

Survey responses show “80 to 90 per cent of [responses] were about our dental plan and overall health care not being sufficient,” Kumar said.

He added that “another key reason [he] believes the change was made was because of the customer service.“

“The service that was provided to students was not the standard [GSA] believes [it] can provide,” Aashish said in regards to the GSA’s old plan.

After the change was announced, students were concerned about whether the agreement to honour the previous plan would be upheld after a student was told their required medical machinery would not be covered. 

No plan outline was available to students for them to see what their coverage looked like until September 1. 

Andrea DeKeseredy, a PhD student in the department of sociology, said she “couldn’t really figure out what was on [the plan] because there were just no details.”

“In trying to get the [plan outline], if you go on the StudyWell website or the GSA website, that is not the plan. That is the outline of a plan.” 

“I feel like a lot of people do not know what their benefits are or what they’re entitled to,” Kumar says

Out of the available information, DeKeseredy found “a lot of things were different, but [they] couldn’t confirm that without the official plan,” she said.

She was told that the plan would be made available, alongside a new app for coverage, on September 1. But due to being left in the dark about what the plan covers, DeKeseredy said she couldn’t pay tuition because she didn’t know whether to opt-in or out of the new plan. 

However, StudyWell ended up informing students that their medical machinery actually is covered under the plan. 

Kumar said that, if something seems to be not covered under the plan, students “need to file an exception” in the app. 

The app comes with a new website as well where students can see their coverage at any time. Kumar said that the app is more straightforward and more easily navigated compared to the previous. He hopes that this will allow for more students to use their coverage, making it accessible. 

Studywell are making it so users can use their U of A Google ID to sign into the app as well. 

“I feel like a lot of people do not know what their benefits are or what they’re entitled to,” Kumar said. And this app, he hopes, will bridge the gap and allow for more students to use their benefits.