Vaden Health Center will no longer offer health insurance plans to dependents of Stanford students because of escalating and unsustainable costs, the center announced yesterday. The change will take effect on Sept. 1, 2006 and affects just over 100 students. Cardinal Care, the student health insurance plan that has over 8,000 enrollees, is unaffected by the change to the Dependent Health Insurance Plan, which is a separate entity.

The high cost of the plan is a result of the low number of enrollees and their frequent use of health care resources, including a large number of spouses using maternity care. In addition, rising hospital and physician costs, new and expensive technologies and the increasing use of costly drugs are affecting this plan and others nationwide. For the 2006-2007 academic year, premiums would have increased more than 50 percent over the current rate.

The University considered combining the Cardinal Care and Dependent Health Insurance plans, but such measures would create “an unfair burden in terms of increased premiums for the students in Cardinal Care,” according to Vaden’s Web site.

Civil and environmental engineering graduate student Mike Dvorak signed up for Cardinal Care when he got to campus this year, but he didn’t even know about insurance options that existed for his wife.

“I had no idea about the [Dependent Health Insurance] plan,” Dvorak said. “I might have been interested if had I known.”

Historically, most graduate students and their families received a generous University subsidy to help make insurance affordable. However, current funding is inadequate to subsidize the high increase in the plan’s costs.

“The top priority of the Vaden Insurance Office is to help each affected individual find and enroll in an another health insurance plan,” said Dr. Ira M. Friedman, director of Vaden, in a press release. “The insurance office staff has researched various options to ease the transition to alternative coverage and found a number of lower cost, high-quality programs on the market, including plans for the hard to insure.”

Vaden officials have developed a resource guide and online information at http://vaden.stanford.edu/resources, to explore coverage options for students affected by the changes. The Web site includes a list of insurers that offer plans for adults and children, questions to be considered in choosing a plan and explanations of common health insurance terminology.

“The University’s decision to discontinue the Dependent Health Insurance Plan is a difficult but necessary one,” Friedman said in the press release. “We understand the concerns that this decision will raise among plan enrollees and are dedicated to helping each of them identify and enroll in a plan that best meets their needs.”

Vaden has also identified options for those who are hard to insure. The University is setting aside “a small pool of funds” to provide need-based financial assistance for hard-to-insure student dependents for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Provost John Etchemendy and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Greg Boardman approved the recommendation put forward by the Vaden administration to discontinue the plan. The recommendation was made in consultation with the Health Insurance Advisory committee, which includes four student representatives.

The Vaden Insurance Office, located on the first floor of the health center at 866 Campus Drive, can be reached by telephone at (650) 723-2135, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by email at healthinsurance@stanford.edu.