[Vision2020] UI & Discrimination Against Stepchildren

[Ron Force]

The latest from the UI:


Office of the Vice President
for Finance and Administration

PO Box 443168
Moscow ID 83844-3168

Phone: 208-885-6174
Fax: 208-885-5504

Oct. 25, 2011


To University of Idaho Employees,

The
 University of Idaho is committed to providing excellence in employee 
care and benefits. This week, the annual Open Enrollment brochures began
 arriving in mailboxes, outlining the 2012 benefit options. I write to 
provide a few updates and clarifications that, through oversight, may 
have been unintentionally unclear or omitted from that brochure; for 
that, we apologize. We recognize the benefits process can sometimes be 
information-laden.

Clarification - Coverage for Stepchildren

 The University's health plan does cover stepchildren, regardless of where 
those individuals reside. While included in the plan, it was 
inadvertently omitted from the communication brochure. We had expanded 
that coverage as of Jan. 1,2011, as called for under national healthcare reform. 

Footnote Correction - Deductible for family members (Pages 9 and 10)

 Footnote says: ** When your family has satisfied the $3,000 deductible, you pay 
coinsurance for covered services for all family members. If one family 
member's covered services satisfy the $2,500 individual embedded 
out-of-pocket maximum...

It should say: ** When your family has 
satisfied the $3,000 deductible, you pay coinsurance for covered 
services for all family members. If one family member's covered services
 satisfy the $3,100 individual embedded out-of-pocket ....." 

Correction - Wageworks website URL (Page 20)

 The correct link for Wageworks is www.takecarewageworks.com. 

As
 we do each year, we will have forums and information sessions for 
employees statewide and we encourage you to bring any questions or 
concerns directly to us through those opportunities or e-mail benefits at uidaho.edu or call (208) 885-3697. Complete details are available online at: www.uidaho.edu/humanresources/annualenrollment.


Sincerely,

Ron Smith
Vice President for Finance and Administration 
 


________________________________
From: Saundra Lund <v2020 at ssl1.fastmail.fm>
To: 'Vision 2020' <Vision2020 at moscow.com>
Cc: martyt at lmtribune.com; lrozen at dnews.com; benefits at uidaho.edu; president at uidaho.edu
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 1:57 AM
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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