Healthcare

Grad student health insurance concerns are handled primarily by the Student Insurance office.  The office can be reached by email at studentinsurance@sa.psu.edu.  Karen Klein, the manager of the Student Insurance office, will handle many of the inquiries.

You should contact the Student Insurance office if you (1) are have concerns over how current insurance cases of yours are being handled or (2) you have suggestions for how coverage in the grad insurance plan could be adjusted in the future.  In general, we can have almost anything we want included in our plans.  The goal is to find the right balance between coverage and cost by including those services that will be widely used by grad students.  So, the Student Insurance office is interested in hearing your requests.

GSA has a health insurance liaison who represents grad students at Student Insurance Advisory Board meetings. The Board also includes Karen Klein, an undergraduate representative, and some University Health Services (UHS) representatives. At meetings, Karen presents the latest proposed changes to the health care plan (usually added benefits) and their associated cost increases and the health insurance representatives offer input as to what cost increases are beneficial or not to the graduate student community. After these meetings, the health insurance representative will report to the GSA general assembly meetings. Watch out for announcements through the listserv.

For more about the Graduate Student Health Care plan see: medical, dental and vision. Also, please refer to Penn State Student Insurance Office  including the Graduate Student Health Insurance Booklet (PDF) for additional information.