UC Santa Cruz Students and Workers Rally for UC Health Care Justice
Students and workers gathered outside of the Cowell Student Health Center on the UC Santa Cruz campus on February 13 in response to recent newstories reporting that the UC system is planning to "exploit an Obamacare loophole" to cap student insurance, as well as increase the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) fees by 25% ($600). The proposed fee is the result of what organizers of the rally call "financial mismanagement" on the part of UC administrators. Approximately 100 students and workers attended the rally, which included speeches by those who will likely be affected by the proposed insurance plan changes. Organizers of the rally handed out crutches, walkers, and surgical masks to the crowd to be used as props to symbolize the effects on student health the proposals would have. Sporadically throughout the rally demonstrators would move slowly through the McLaughlin Drive crosswalk in front of the health center, partly to pantomime a deteriorating me...