The University has come under fire in recent weeks because of its cost-cutting policies, especially with regard to the AccessUVa financial aid program. While hundreds of factors are associated with increasing the costs of running a university, many of these increasing costs are due to the nascent Affordable Care Act (ACA). While the ACA is, of course, not solely accountable for increasing the costs of operating a university, its implementation has the potential to cause many problems for the University and its employees because of the high costs associated with the law.
This August, the University announced that the ACA would send its health care costs skyrocketing. According to a statement released by the University, “Provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act are projected to add $7.3 million to the cost of the University health plan in 2014 alone.” A $7.3 million addition to health care costs is nothing to sneeze at, and the figure will surely rise in time. Harsh cutbacks follow this rise in costs — cutbacks that intimately affect the lives of University employees. For instance, this August, the University announced its intention to cut health care coverage to spouses already covered by their own employee plans.
While this may sound trivial, since the spouses will still possess health insurance, this policy change could have drastic impacts. In a statement released in August, Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee cited the change in University policy as an example of “American families…coming face to face with the stark reality that they will lose the coverage they have and like.” The spouses of University employees must have chosen University-sponsored health coverage for a reason, be it lower costs or better coverage. The fact that many spouses of University employees are forced from their desired health care coverage plan is a sad consequence of the ACA.
Additional unintended consequences of this law abound. For instance, many universities around the country have cut adjunct faculty hours so as to reduce them to part-time employees — as a direct response to the ACA’s mandates. This forces research-centered faculty to engage in more classroom time, detracting
from many of the potentially vital research projects that professors around the country spearhead. This change has not come to the University yet, but as health care costs continue to rise, the University will be forced into more budget-saving decisions which could affect both student and faculty life.
And in just the past several weeks, the University has seen its share of controversy when it eliminated all-grant aid from the AccessUVa program. Costs for the AccessUVa program have increased since the program’s inception in 2004, but this alone cannot account for the fact that the University can apparently no longer afford to provide all-grant aid to low-income students. The ACA is of course not the only culprit responsible for this change — there are countless others — but it must be mentioned that without the ACA, the University would have an extra $7.3 million in the 2014 fiscal year alone: money that could be used to help avoid unwanted changes to University programs such as AccessUVa.
In light of the negative impacts this law wreaks on the University, it is somewhat sad and ironic to know that just three years ago a statement released by the University Medical Center offered full-throated support for the ACA. University endorsement of the ACA was, of course, based on broader factors than the impact of this law on the University itself. I do allow for the possibility that the ACA might still improve the costs and quality of health care at this University and in the United States. However, the fact that the law has impacted the University in such a significant way in such a short amount of time does not bode well for the University or for the success of the ACA. The effects of the ACA on this University are major, and, even scarier, still largely unknown. This makes for a frightening future.
Read More
EDITORIAL: Pedestrian safety is an institutional imperative
By Editorial Board | 19 hours agoAmid a national crisis of pedestrian safety, Charlottesville and the University are also struggling to properly maintain pedestrian safety.
YOUNIS: The danger of dehumanizing language
By Ayat Younis | 3 days agoThe administration’s failure to condemn blatant discrimination exacerbates an impossible situation, fostering an atmosphere that misinterprets pro-Palestinian sentiments as support of terrorism.
BRUNMAN: U.Va. administration, protect your Jewish students
By Wylie Brunman | 3 days agoWhen antisemitism is increasingly prevalent on Grounds and when Jewish students feel unsafe and unprotected, it is clear that the University must take active action to safeguard Jewish students.
