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Lisa Feldman of Orono is a University of Maine Procedure retiree.
When I turned 70, I retired from the University of Maine Method. It was a terrific location to work, but not the large road to riches. I’m regular. As a library worker, I experienced to be qualified in shopper service, history-retaining techniques, and computer hardware and software program fundamentals. I also experienced to realize the fundamental principles of relational database architecture, cataloguing procedures and info literacy. It was clerical get the job done, but not unskilled. There have been numerous raises considering that I retired. However, if I started function tomorrow, I’d make a dollar and modify earlier mentioned minimum amount wage.
Every time employees complained about skimpy pay, university technique directors objected that “compensation” consisted of advantages as properly as income. They pointed with delight to a robust positive aspects bundle, primarily our overall health insurance coverage. We did respect our insurance policy. For quite a few of us, this and the implicit promise of retiree wellness insurance coverage to comply with was what stored us operating ten years soon after 10 years.
No just one with less than 10 entire-time decades of service qualifies for university process retiree insurance policies. Several of us labored for a lot for a longer period. That program of retiree wellness insurance policy will finish with the calendar yr. This huge alter was designed without having participation by associates of both latest or retired staff members. It was declared with very little discover — we got a letter at the finish of August telling us to sign up for a substitution by the conclusion of Oct.
This substitute will be not a new group prepare but an particular person “health reimbursement arrangement.” We’ll be liberated to opt for a program, then spend the rates and connected fees. The process will reimburse “allowable” expenses up to a a lot less-than-lavish maximum of $2,100 per retiree ($800 for spouses).
Will this new arrangement furnish comparably economical, obtainable and detailed coverage protection for nearly 3,000 campus and Cooperative Extension retirees? The university procedure mentioned it can absorb the expenditures of changeover and nevertheless conserve 34 percent on retiree coverage. You do the math.
We know this is a difficult time for community-sector budgets. We realize all also effectively the require for belt-tightening. All through previous finances crises, numerous of us experienced our hours lower or our operate year shortened. We produced do with very small raises, or no raises at all. When procedure administrators exhorted us to “do extra with much less,” we figured out how to make that happen.
Decade following ten years, we’ve aided the university program help save money by finding out to increase efficiency. Now, in the midst of a international well being crisis, a susceptible populace will be solid adrift on the choppy waters of insurance policy “entrepreneurialism.” Should not Maine’s community university program be managed for the public very good as perfectly as the base line? Is this modify truly a fantastic cut price?
The existing chancellor is new to Maine, new to the College of Maine System and new to greater schooling. So I handle these queries to trustees, who have been here for a longer time.
College retirees are not simply a drain on finances. We volunteer on campus. We enable recruit students. We make alumni and other fiscal donations. We contact legislators to assistance funds requests. We mobilize votes for bond issues. Appreciably altering retiree wellbeing insurance policy will consequence in some decline of this aid. Has your cost-benefit assessment taken this forfeit into account?
Recent staff in just 10 yrs of retirement have had their options upended by this adjust. Youthful workforce will feel, “Maybe I should look for a career the place I can make much more cash.” In the midst of the COVID-19 disaster, when we need to have workers to be centered fully on the position at hand, was it a fantastic idea to provoke a crisis in employee morale?
Would a much more open, extra inclusive, additional democratic selection-producing and scheduling procedure have resulted in a superior answer?
As veteran educators and assistance employees, we know that an important section of the instructional procedure is recognizing mistakes and mastering from them. We consequently inquire the trustees to rethink this reckless, probably costly phase.
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