[Vision2020] UI & Discrimination Against Stepchildren

Tue Oct 25 09:52:36 PDT 2011

Thanks for the link, Tom.  The issue that Saundra raised is that adopted and biological children are covered until age 26 regardless of where they are living.  Step children are only covered if they live with their step parent.  This is a distinctly different, and frankly, discriminatory application that differs significantly from other public universities and colleges in the state and state employees in general.  

Boise State University:   <http://hrs.boisestate.edu/benefits/insurance_eligibility.shtml> http://hrs.boisestate.edu/benefits/insurance_eligibility.shtml

               “Eligible Dependents  means: (1) The spouse of the Enrollee and/or (2) the children of an Enrollee or Enrollee's spouse, up to their 26th birthdays, unless the dependent child(ren) are eligible to enroll in their own employer based group coverage.” The term "children" includes natural children, stepchildren, adopted children, or children in the process of adoption from time placed with the Enrollee. The term "children" also includes children legally dependent upon the Enrollee or Enrollee's spouse for support where a normal parent-child relationship exists with the expectation that the Enrollee will continue to rear that child to adulthood. However, if one or both of that child's natural parents live in the same household with the Enrollee, a parent-child relationship shall not be deemed to exist even though the Enrollee or the Enrollee's spouse provides support.

Idaho State University:  <http://www.isu.edu/humanr/Benefits/medical.shtml> http://www.isu.edu/humanr/Benefits/medical.shtml
Dependents: The following individuals qualify as dependents as defined in the State's Group Insurance Contracts  <http://adm.idaho.gov/insurance/contracts.htm> and may be covered under group insurance benefits: 

*	Your legal spouse 
*	Your unmarried children up to their 19th birthday. The term "children" includes natural children, stepchildren, adopted children, or children in the process of adoption from the time placed with you. The term "children" also includes children legally dependent upon you or your spouse where a normal parent-child relationship exists with the expectation that you will continue to rear that child to adulthood. However, if one or both of that child's natural parents live in the same household with you, a parent-child relationship shall not be deemed to exist, even though you or your spouse provides support. 
*	Dependent children may be eligible up to age 26, so long as they are not eligible for other group coverage after their 25th birthday. “

The University of Idaho is, I believe, a stand-alone unit in negotiating insurance contracts rather than swimming in the insurance pool with all other state employees, for example BSU, ISU.  I am unclear why UI does not join the larger pool with the attendant advantages that larger numbers offer. I hope that  a more knowledgeable  V2020 reader can address that issue.

Re Bustamante: While the claim has been made that 70,000 emails involving Bustamante must be reviewed, redacted and massaged I call baloney. The vast majority of those emails (if the claimed number is accurate) are undoubtedly junky massive mailings, or committee agendas and meeting times/dates – the flotsam and jetsam of all bureaucracies and professions.   Further, the notion that single-minded gnomes are in the basement of the Ad Building beavering away on such minutia is ludicrous.      A month has passed and certainly his annual evaluations, student evaluations, and minutes from meetings addressing this resignation/termination should be available.  (Of course, it would be helpful if UI had a central records management system, but it is my belief that that position was axed several years ago and records retention is an every-department-for-itself- do-it yourself kind of operation.)  It doesn’t take a genius to imagine that the very bad publicity which will result from revealing details of Bustamante’s employment will not be a strong recruitment tool for UI and probably is the basis for the subsequent foot dragging.

Rose

From: Tom Hansen [mailto:thansen at moscow.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 8:25 AM
To: Rosemary Huskey
Cc: Saundra Lund; Vision 2020
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] UI & Discrimination Against Stepchildren

According to the UI Human Resources' Employees Benefits web page at:

http://www.uidaho.edu/benefits/whoiseligibleforcoverage

--------------------------------

Your Children

A child under the age of 26; For purposes of the plan, a "child" means your:

·        Biological child

·        Legally adopted child or child placed with you for adoption

·        Stepchild living with you

·        Child for whom you are the legal guardian

·        Child who is required to be covered by a Qualified Medical Child Support Order (QMSCO)

--------------------------------

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

"Honest and true,

As the morning star.

Vote for just two,

Ament and Lamar."

On Oct 25, 2011, at 7:01 AM, "Rosemary Huskey" <donaldrose at cpcinternet.com> wrote:

Saundra and Visionaries,
What person or committee negotiates insurance contracts for the University
of Idaho?  I remember several years ago when we had concerns about UI
insurance decisions Saundra and I were told that no minutes were kept of
those meetings.  The road blocks placed in our path for Freedom of
Information requests made it unfeasible for us to continue to press the
matter.  The lack of transparency, and total absence of accountability was
appalling and presented a thirty foot brick wall for ordinary citizens to
scale.  Which reminds me, has any information about Bustamante been
released?  It is no wonder that UI is losing credibility across Idaho.  
Rose Huskey

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Saundra Lund
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 1:57 AM
To: 'Vision 2020'
Cc: martyt at lmtribune.com; lrozen at dnews.com; benefits at uidaho.edu;
president at uidaho.edu
Subject: [Vision2020] UI & Discrimination Against Stepchildren

Visionaries:

Just when I thought the UI was finished sinking to slimy depths with respect
to employee & retiree health coverage and had started to rebound in a good
way, I've found I was wrong.  Instead, the UI has now descended to new
unimaginable & unfathomable discriminatory anti-family lows.  We received
our Open Enrollment package in the mail today, and I'm incredibly offended .
. . and hurt.

You see, a stepchild isn't considered to be a part of the employee's family
anymore unless he/she lives at home.  This is in direct contrast to
"biological" and "adopted" children who are eligible to be covered by UI
health insurance until they turn 26 regardless of where they live.  Shoot, a
"biological" child under age 26 could even get married, have children, move
to another country . . . and *still* be eligible to be covered on his/her
parent's health care insurance through the UI.

But the stepchildren of UI employees?  Nope, sorry -- too bad, so sad.  We
apparently took the wrong approach in encouraging OUR daughter to work
towards self-sufficiency.  Maybe we should just force her to move back in
with us so we can get her health insurance coverage through the UI again
(she got booted off when she turned 19; she's 21 now).

And, never mind the fact that my dh has been the ONLY father OUR daughter
has ever known -- he's been her father since she was not quite two, through
elementary school, through junior high school, and through high school
graduation -- which is a lot longer than many marriages last these days, and
through the wee hours of today.  We're still going strong as a family, the
ONLY family our daughter has EVER known.

According to the UI, my husband is apparently not OUR daughter's "real"
father in spite of the fact that we are legally married and in spite of the
fact that my husband lived with OUR daughter full-time from diapers through
the years when --  were we were a civilized society, all girls between 13 &
16 would be sent to a desert island to torment only each other -- and high
school graduation.  And, we're still going strong as a family, the ONLY
family our daughter has EVER known.

We had her last name legally changed before she started kindergarten so
there would NEVER be any doubts about who her family was, but none of that
is good enough for the UI.

Nope -- she's a "just" a stepchild, according to the UI . . . not worthy of
being considered a part of our family for health insurance purposes.

We found nothing in the UI Open Enrollment materials indicating the
rationale for this decidedly anti-family definition of children, a
definition that is at odds with the health insurance definitions of the
State of Idaho, LCSC, NIC, BSU, ISU, etc.  Given the fact that the UI is
self-insured, it is the UI that is calling the shots -- that definition
*wasn't* dictated by some big, bad health insurance carrier.

Once again, the UI has taken a position that penalizes its loyal employees
and their families, and I'm frankly beyond.

It's been difficult enough that virtually each year my dh has been employed
by the UI, we've gotten poorer & poorer due to no wage increases & wages
falling further & further behind peer institutions -- let alone inflation --
but this discriminatory definition of children really is a bridge too far,
and it seems to me the mental giants behind this crappola are vastly
overpaid.  Waste at the UI?  You betcha!

There is, no doubt, a special place in Hades reserved for those at the UI
responsible for what is essentially an institutionalization of the
Cinderella effect, but that's unlikely to offer any meaningful solace -- or
help -- to UI families that happen to encompass young adult stepchildren.

Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
~Edmund Burke

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