Dear colleagues,
On October 26th, every UC employee received an Open Enrollment notice with new rates for healthcare benefits. The increases in the employee health benefits share are unprecedented and alarming. Costs for healthcare benefits will be going up between 15% and 193% per month, depending on one’s plan and coverage.
UCOP presented these changes to UC unions and the Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA), of which the Santa Cruz Faculty Association is a member, just three days before the start of Open Enrollment, leaving no opportunity for input. Struck by the exorbitant increases, the UC unions and CUCFA pressed for answers. UCOP representatives cited inflation, deferred preventative care during the pandemic, rising drug costs, and clinical workforce shortages as root causes for these price increases. While these are all real issues impacting healthcare costs everywhere, when pushed for details about how prices were negotiated and set for UC employees, UCOP’s answers were unsatisfactory and lacked transparency.
Importantly, the cost to employees of the various healthcare plan options is determined by the insurance company rate increase less the employer share contribution. UC did not provide information about either the rate increase or the employer contribution, so there is no way to tell if UC is paying its share of the increased cost.
CUCFA has prepared a letter to UC President Drake protesting the magnitude of these increases in our health benefit costs and UC’s lack of transparency in devising and announcing these policies. We encourage you to sign on to this letter, which you can do by clicking on this link: https://bit.ly/ucHealth
If you have any questions about this message or the SCFA, you can contact us at scfa.assist@gmail.com.
Thank you,
The SCFA Board