Just one week after a group of international students circulated a petition protesting the newest update to Barnard’s health insurance policy, calling it “discriminatory,” the College appears to have walked back on the change.

Just weeks after quietly introducing a change to its health insurance policy for international students, Barnard seems to have reversed its decision following community pushback. According to a petition created by Yuyao Zhou (BC ’25) and Yuqi Cheng (BC ’25), the College informed international students earlier this month that they would no longer have the ability to opt out of SHIP in favor of an alternative health insurance plan, as they had been allowed to do in previous years. Instead, all international students would be automatically enrolled in the program, which would then be included in their tuition bill. The petition went live on July 19. 

In a swift reversal, on July 26, a representative from Barnard contacted Cheng to say that international students could, in fact, waive coverage “as in the past,” and to apologize “if there was any confusion.” Further, a Barnard spokesperson implied there had never been a change, telling Bwog, “Barnard College permits all students (domestic and international) to submit a waiver request to waive out of enrollment in the Barnard College student health insurance plan, if all waiver criteria are met. All waiver request submissions are reviewed based on the same criteria. We understand there may have been some miscommunication regarding this issue.” Further, they shared that “In an effort to be as clear as possible to our students, our resources and information are being updated.” The full text of the statement can be found below.

However, Cheng and several other students say that in the weeks prior, they and their families had multiple interactions with representatives from Barnard, who not only confirmed, but defended the policy change. Further, in the petition, Zhou and Cheng specifically references a number of interactions with Mary Joan Murphy, Executive Director of Student Health and Wellness Programs, as evidence of discriminatory and/or misleading behavior, on top of the policy change itself.

Expanding on these allegations, Cheng provided Bwog with email communications between her father and Murphy, which occurred after Cheng’s father wrote to inquire about the new mandate. In one email, Murphy tells Cheng’s father that the mandated enrollment policy “has been in place for some time.” Cheng, Zhou, and others dispute this altogether, telling Bwog they were able to waive SHIP coverage as recently as last year. Murphy’s claim also seems to directly contradict more recent communications from Barnard, which confirm that international students have had the option to waive coverage in past years, and imply the College has no plans to change this policy.

Further, Murphy explains the policy change to Cheng’s father by saying that “most international students and their families are unfamiliar with how health insurance in the United States works, and in the past have signed up for plans with some areas that could be very costly for them,” including plans that are not compliant with the Affordable Care Act or which contain coverage gaps. However, Zhou, who wrote the text of the petition, asserts that many international students had previously secured coverage under alternative insurance plans, such as the New York Essential Plan or United Healthcare, and had found them to be less expensive and more accessible. “United Healthcare was responsive to appeals and complaints,” explains the petition, “while Aetna took an indefinitely long time to get back on just a simple case.” The petition also highlights the discrepancy between this policy and the policy for American students—who have always had the option to waive SHIP so long as they can provide proof of comparable insurance—as particularly “discriminatory.” Expanding on this point, Zhou argued that “it should be [Barnard’s] responsibility to guide international students towards familiarizing themselves with the United States health insurance procedure, rather than paternalistically subordinating us to a passive position in which the rules and decisions around enrollment in SHIP are completely dependent on the caucus at Primary Care Health Service and Student Health and Wellness Programs.” 

Later in the same email, Murphy tells Cheng’s father that “we try to audit every student’s plans, but sometimes students get through by not answering our waiver questions honestly.” She goes on to write that “the policy was put in place to make sure students have access to comprehensive and financially sound health insurance,” and is “protective, not discriminatory.” However, Zhou and Cheng argue that this claim itself is further evidence of Barnard’s ongoing discrimination against international students, as it “[casts] doubt on international students’ integrity” and “assumes that a significant number of [international] students are being deceitful.” Barnard declined to comment when asked about Murphy’s email. 

“Such an insinuating, broad generalization not only unwarrantedly undermines the integrity of the international student community,” writes Zhou in the petition, “but also shifts the blame for the discriminatory insurance policy onto the students themselves. In doing so, it fails to address the real issue of the policy’s discrimination and unfairly places the burden on the affected groups.” 

Before the policy was reversed, Zhou and Cheng collected testimony from several international students, who expressed deep concerns about SHIP and Aetna. This testimony included some from Cheng herself, who described an incident in October 2022 in which Aetna declined to cover the removal of her stitches after her jaw was broken earlier that year, calling the $500 procedure “not urgent.” In this case, the issue only resolved seven months later, when Barnard agreed to cover the expense through its emergency fund. Despite PCHS Director Elliot Wasserman’s attempts to negotiate with Aetna on Cheng’s behalf, the company still declined to cover her medical costs. In her email to Cheng’s father, Murphy wrote that, “If [Cheng] had had another insurance, we would not have been able to offer that assistance.” 

In a statement to Bwog, a Barnard spokesperson elaborated, “We advise our students to consider the Barnard College Aetna student health insurance plan both to ensure that they do not incur large costs if there is a catastrophic medical event and to ensure that they are adequately protected in accordance with requirements.” 

Some students also expressed concerns surrounding Barnard’s Primary Care Health Services (PCHS), saying they were wary of relying on the office after past negative experiences. Harriet He (BC ’25) described multiple incidents, including one in which a healthcare provider at PCHS allegedly “missed” her COVID-19 symptoms, as reason for her distrust. She also explained that she experiences a variety of high-support medical needs, including autism, depression, and migraines, which require her to visit doctors outside of PCHS around seven times a month. Under SHIP, her copay would be $40 for each appointment, more than double her previous health insurance policy, which she says would create a significant burden. Further, Harriet says Aetna has already declined to cover several of her most recent—and most expensive—medications, meaning were she mandated to enroll in SHIP, she would be forced to pay for them out of pocket. According to Harriet, Barnard representatives had confirmed to her as recently as July 26 that she would be mandated to enroll in SHIP, despite her concerns. It is not clear when—or why—a decision was reached about reversing this policy. 

In her communications with Cheng’s father, Murphy defended the policy change by arguing that “most schools in both the Ivy League and [the Consortium on Financing Higher Education] require their international students to have the school’s health insurance.” However, the policy, if implemented by Barnard, would have actually been somewhat novel within the Ivy League, where the majority of colleges—including the other undergraduate colleges at Columbia—still provide international students with some avenue to waive institutional health insurance. For example, while Columbia Health automatically enrolls all international students in the Columbia Plan, it does allow them to apply for a waiver if they are covered by a plan that meets the same University requirements, and approves these waivers on an individual basis. 

While the concerns expressed by Cheng and other international students particularly target the actions of Barnard, this incident comes after months of criticism levied by students against the University’s health care services at large. In April, more than 1,600 members of the Columbia community signed a petition addressed to University administrators that demanded “increased access to mental health care services for all students, faculty, and staff.” In particular, the petition took issue with the number of available mental health care providers at Columbia Psychological Services (CPS) and the resulting long wait times for students seeking care, calling the resources provided by CPS “grossly inadequate and insufficient.” At the time, a University spokesperson told Bwog that “Student well-being remains a top priority, and the University continues to prioritize student health and well-being. Any student in crisis can access care, support, and guidance 24/7 through Columbia Health Counseling and Psychological Services.” However, the University has yet to issue a formal public response to the petition.

Statement from a Barnard College spokesperson to Bwog on Thursday, July 27:

Barnard College permits all students (domestic and international) to submit a waiver request to waive out of enrollment in the Barnard College student health insurance plan, if all waiver criteria are met. All waiver request submissions are reviewed based on the same criteria. We understand there may have been some miscommunication regarding this issue. We advise our students to consider the Barnard College Aetna student health insurance plan both to ensure that they do not incur large costs if there is a catastrophic medical event and to ensure that they are adequately protected in accordance with requirements. In an effort to be as clear as possible to our students, our resources and information are being updated.

This is a developing story.

Editor’s note: This article was updated on July 27 to properly credit Yuyao Zhou (BC ’25) for her authorship of the petition.

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