<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span>The latest from the UI:</span></div><div><br><span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:right" align="right"><span><img src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=9605eaadba&view=att&th=1333ccd7bbb214ee&attid=0.1&disp=emb&zw" alt="University of Idaho" height="81" width="350"></span><br><span style="font-size:13.5pt">Office of the Vice President</span><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><br></span><span style="font-size:13.5pt">for Finance and Administration</span><br><br><span>PO Box 443168</span><br><span>Moscow ID 83844-3168</span><br><span><br>Phone: <a href="tel:208-885-6174" value="+12088856174" target="_blank">208-885-6174</a></span><br><span>Fax: <a href="tel:208-885-5504" value="+12088855504" target="_blank">208-885-5504</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span><br>Oct.
25, 2011<br><br><br>To University of Idaho Employees,<br><br>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.<br><br><b>Clarification - Coverage for Stepchildren</b></span></div><table style="width:100.0%" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td style="width:37.5pt;padding:1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt" valign="top" width="50"><br></td><td style="padding:1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><span>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.</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span><br><b>Footnote Correction - Deductible for family members (Pages 9 and 10)</b></span></div><table style="width:100.0%" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td style="width:37.5pt;padding:1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt" valign="top" width="50"><br></td><td style="padding:1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><span>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...<br><br>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 <b><u>$3,100</u></b> individual embedded out-of-pocket ....."</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span><br><b>Correction - Wageworks website URL (Page 20)</b></span></div><table style="width:100.0%" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td style="width:37.5pt;padding:1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt" valign="top" width="50"><br></td><td style="padding:1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><span>The correct link for Wageworks is <a href="http://www.takecarewageworks.com/" target="_blank">www.takecarewageworks.com</a>.</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span><br>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 <a href="mailto:benefits@uidaho.edu" target="_blank">benefits@uidaho.edu</a> or call <a href="tel:%28208%29%20885-3697" value="+12088853697" target="_blank">(208) 885-3697</a>. Complete details are available online at: <a href="http://www.uidaho.edu/humanresources/annualenrollment" target="_blank">www.uidaho.edu/humanresources/<wbr>annualenrollment</a>.<br><br><br>Sincerely,</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><br><br></span><span>Ron Smith<br>Vice President for Finance and Administration</span></div> <div> </div><div><br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Arial" size="2"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Saundra Lund <v2020@ssl1.fastmail.fm><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b>
'Vision 2020' <Vision2020@moscow.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cc:</span></b> martyt@lmtribune.com; lrozen@dnews.com; benefits@uidaho.edu; president@uidaho.edu<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, October 25, 2011 1:57 AM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [Vision2020] UI & Discrimination Against Stepchildren<br></font><br>
Visionaries:<br><br>Just when I thought the UI was finished sinking to slimy depths with respect<br>to employee & retiree health coverage and had started to rebound in a good<br>way, I've found I was wrong. Instead, the UI has now descended to new<br>unimaginable & unfathomable discriminatory anti-family lows. We received<br>our Open Enrollment package in the mail today, and I'm incredibly offended .<br>. . and hurt.<br><br>You see, a stepchild isn't considered to be a part of the employee's family<br>anymore unless he/she lives at home. This is in direct contrast to<br>"biological" and "adopted" children who are eligible to be covered by UI<br>health insurance until they turn 26 regardless of where they live. Shoot, a<br>"biological" child under age 26 could even get married, have children, move<br>to another country . . . and *still* be eligible to be covered on his/her<br>parent's health care insurance through the
UI.<br><br>But the stepchildren of UI employees? Nope, sorry -- too bad, so sad. We<br>apparently took the wrong approach in encouraging OUR daughter to work<br>towards self-sufficiency. Maybe we should just force her to move back in<br>with us so we can get her health insurance coverage through the UI again<br>(she got booted off when she turned 19; she's 21 now).<br><br>And, never mind the fact that my dh has been the ONLY father OUR daughter<br>has ever known -- he's been her father since she was not quite two, through<br>elementary school, through junior high school, and through high school<br>graduation -- which is a lot longer than many marriages last these days, and<br>through the wee hours of today. We're still going strong as a family, the<br>ONLY family our daughter has EVER known.<br><br>According to the UI, my husband is apparently not OUR daughter's "real"<br>father in spite of the fact that we are legally married
and in spite of the<br>fact that my husband lived with OUR daughter full-time from diapers through<br>the years when -- were we were a civilized society, all girls between 13 &<br>16 would be sent to a desert island to torment only each other -- and high<br>school graduation. And, we're still going strong as a family, the ONLY<br>family our daughter has EVER known.<br><br>We had her last name legally changed before she started kindergarten so<br>there would NEVER be any doubts about who her family was, but none of that<br>is good enough for the UI.<br><br>Nope -- she's a "just" a stepchild, according to the UI . . . not worthy of<br>being considered a part of our family for health insurance purposes.<br><br>We found nothing in the UI Open Enrollment materials indicating the<br>rationale for this decidedly anti-family definition of children, a<br>definition that is at odds with the health insurance definitions of the<br>State of Idaho,
LCSC, NIC, BSU, ISU, etc. Given the fact that the UI is<br>self-insured, it is the UI that is calling the shots -- that definition<br>*wasn't* dictated by some big, bad health insurance carrier.<br><br>Once again, the UI has taken a position that penalizes its loyal employees<br>and their families, and I'm frankly beyond.<br><br>It's been difficult enough that virtually each year my dh has been employed<br>by the UI, we've gotten poorer & poorer due to no wage increases & wages<br>falling further & further behind peer institutions -- let alone inflation --<br>but this discriminatory definition of children really is a bridge too far,<br>and it seems to me the mental giants behind this crappola are vastly<br>overpaid. Waste at the UI? You betcha!<br><br>There is, no doubt, a special place in Hades reserved for those at the UI<br>responsible for what is essentially an institutionalization of the<br>Cinderella effect, but
that's unlikely to offer any meaningful solace -- or<br>help -- to UI families that happen to encompass young adult stepchildren.<br><br><br>Saundra Lund<br>Moscow, ID<br><br>The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do<br>nothing.<br>~Edmund Burke<br><br><br><br><br><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet,<br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.<br> http://www.fsr.net<br> mailto:<a ymailto="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com" href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br>=======================================================<br><br><br></div></div></div></body></html>