Western has a fat wad

By Andy Garrison

February 18, 2013

-Editorial-

With all the excess money that Western has accumulated to prepare for the cuts that never took place, they should cover health care fees for students on campus.

Initially the student success act had us paying a fifty dollar a month fee to cover the costs of visiting the health center; the thing is, none of us benefit from it because it has been pushed to the side to pass the rest of the act quickly.

We currently also pay a fee every time we have to go to the health center on campus. Most students with health insurance go to the center thinking that they are covered, not so, Western does not file insurance and so it is essentially useless on campus.

These fees act as a barrier to students who many times don’t have the cash to pony up each visit. Any service that is set up to help students at a university and then creates a barrier to accessing it is a bad idea.

Especially in light of the recent flu outbreak, which is the kind of thing the on-campus facility was made to help with, health services should be made readily accessible to Western students.

As a result of these fees, many students simply go down the road to the E.R. even if it is something minor and easily treatable at our health facilities because they don’t have the cash to pay right at that moment. All this accomplishes is a hefty hospital bill that adds to our debts and could be easily avoided if the fee was dropped.

If Western has this surplus of funds and really cares about its’ students then making health care on campus free is something they should do.

It is something that monetarily is small but would go far towards making campus life a whole lot easier as well as giving back to the students whose tuitions gave them that fund surplus in the first place.