This is a post to alert you to an issue that will affect all members of the UCD faculty and staff. As you may have seen in an email from UCOP, UC has shifted the health insurance structures for all UC employees. While these changes are part of a cost-reduction scheme, some of the details of the plans may well leave employees in complicated circumstances as some insurance plans are dropped or current providers no longer covered at the same level. For an initial look at the planned changes, please see:
http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/oe/
While the At Your Service website now has some details of the upcoming plans, some details will not be released until mid- to late- October. UCOP is planning to hold Town Hall-style meetings at UCD to try to inform employees of the details of coverage in time for the November Open Enrollment period. UCD’s Health Care Facilitator Program and Employee Benefits offices will also be presenting on this, but the dates for these presentations will not be set until early October. This will not leave people with much time to discover all the information necessary to make sound decisions on this crucial issue.
The DFA Board is making the following recommendations to members to try to ensure that as many employees as possible receive the information they need in time for Open Enrollment:
* request that department chairs publicize the fact of the upcoming changes in insurance policy at full faculty and department meetings
* at these meetings, suggest that all employees attend the town hall or healthcare facilitator meetings held by the campus
* prior to the town halls, employees should think about what their likely individual or family health care needs will be for the next five years, and come to the town halls with questions about which plans will best suit those needs. Your doctor might have specific recommendations on this point, so you might consider asking for a wellness visit in advance of open enrollment to discover these needs
* if you or someone you know has particularly complicated health care needs that may be imperiled by a shift in insurer or provider, and the health care plans themselves have been unhelpful, please contact the UC Davis health care facilitator (http://www.hr.ucdavis.edu/benefits/1hw/hcf). The more details UCOP has about the potential impact of the new insurance scheme, the better the chances that we can try to get everyone’s needs met. The Academic Senate is working hard to pressure UCOP to structure the new insurance scheme in ways that meet the needs of as many faculty as possible, but it needs as much information as possible for that to happen.
In short, please inform yourself as deeply and as far in advance as possible as to the impact of the upcoming changes, and try to use departmental channels to ensure that your colleagues and staff do as well.
The DFA is deeply concerned that faculty have been so poorly and lately informed of these changes that could have major implications for their healthcare. The task now is to ensure that its members are alerted to these changes and that Senate leaders are informed of the difficulties they may generate for faculty.