Chancellors approved the 31-member UC SHIP Advisory Board’s recommendations including eliminating the lifetime coverage cap and other health benefits. At the May 1 meeting, all chancellors approved an advisory board recommendation to exclude premiums that will aid in reducing the $57 million deficit. 

“There were a number of issues facing UC SHIP as it moved toward the next plan year,” University of California Office of the President Media Specialist Brooke Converse said. “We wanted to make sure that students on all the campuses and all the administrators involved were all getting a chance to be informed about what was going on and have a say in how to move forward since it’s a plan by and for students.”

Students and student health directors from each UC campus, as well as some administrators from campuses and UCOP, make up the UC SHIP advisory board that looked over the list of recommendations facing the program. The UC SHIP Advisory Board shared the information with other students and got their opinions on the recommendations. 

Campus representatives voted on the recommendations after the process was complete, which included one vote from each campus followed by the approval of the executive committee. The group of students and administrators then passed the list of recommendations to the Council of Chancellors, which included chancellors from all ten UC campuses and the UC Hastings College of Law. 

The chancellors confirmed that some UC campuses would keep SHIP while others would leave. UC San Francisco and UC Santa Barbara will leave parts of program. UC Berkeley is the only campus leaving SHIP completely, including medical, dental and vision. 

“UC SHIP was created with extensive input from students,” a UC Newsroom release stated. “Students emphasized the importance of an affordable premium and low co-pays.”

Other recommendations included supporting a UC SHIP waiver, allowing group-level participation in UC SHIP, varying benefit designs for cost sharing, and more consistency of in covered services across campuses. 

Formalized SHIP program improvements for the 2013–2014 plan year include implementing a better reporting system which will take effect on Aug. 1.