What were those cuts? To start with our health insurance coverage diminished dramatically due to about doubling of the annual deductible. This comes on top of recent increases in drug co-payments.
We have less coverage, but substantially higher premiums. It is true that medical costs are going up, but at a fraction of the rate of our premium increases. From February 1997 to February 2000, medical expenditures rose 10.3% on the Consumer Price Index. In comparison the UKHMO premium increased 30% from 1997 to 2000-01 for coverage for an employee and spouse and 33% for those with family coverage. (UK says it spends $182.95 for individual UKHMO coverage, a 27% increase over the premium it said it paid in 1997.) The premium increase for Option 2000 coverage has been even more outrageous: 45% for individuals, 57% to include a spouse, and 80% for family coverage.
Despite the high cost of our health insurance, the Chapter’s 1998 survey showed that none of the offered plans meet faculty needs for dependents living elsewhere or faculty engaged in sabbatical, summer or other extended stays outside Kentucky.
President Wethington’s contract provides full payment for family health insurance of his choice. Perhaps faculty will do better if the new President receives the same benefits options as the rest of us! (See the 1988 study on our web page: www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/AAUP. The address is case sensitive; use lower case and capital letters where shown.)
