Retirees unhappy with health benefits

Many retirees are condemning IU's health benefits policy for retiring faculty and staff, which offers insurance plans that receive no funding from the University. \n"After 35 years with the University, you begin to function very much like a family," said former IU faculty member James Crowe. "That feeling fades very quickly once you retire." \nCrowe, who retired in October of 2000 after serving as chair of the department of applied health science, said he was disappointed with the lack of contribution from the University in helping retirees pay their health care costs, particularly since these costs had increased drastically in the last couple of years. He said his premiums had jumped from $388 to $929 in less than two years.\n"People just can't afford those kinds of premiums," he said. "As a result, many retirees are driven out of the 'pool' and opt for different programs."\nCrowe said the University had succeeded in driving retirees out of the IU insurance programs and into other ones, which is what it had always intended. He advised those planning to retire to "look elsewhere for insurance programs."\n"If the IU administration looked in the mirror, the reflection that they would get is that they're not treating faculty fairly," Crowe said.\nEdward Grant, a distinguished professor of history who retired in 1992, argues that the problem remains because not enough people are aware of it. \n"I never paid any attention to it until the last few years," he said. "Most faculty at IU have no idea about this until they are confronted with it."\nIn a letter to Ben Brabson, president of the American Association of University Professors, Grant stated the University had "chosen to deny health benefits to all of its faculty and staff retirees … by consigning … insurance plans to which IU contributes nothing."\n"A lot of other universities pay premiums for their retired faculty," Grant said, citing the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and the University of Illinois as examples of schools that provide "good retiree programs." \nIU offers three health insurance options to its retiring faculty and staff -- the IU PPO, the Anthem Blue Retirement plan and the COBRA option. Although IU sponsors these programs, it does not provide funding for any of them, which means retirees do not get any contributions toward their premiums. \nTrustee Peter Obremskey said though he sympathized with the plight of retirees, it was a problem that had not yet been formally addressed by the IU board of trustees.\n"The cost of health care has gone through the roof," he said. "I personally sympathize with them, but the board has not yet taken a position on this issue."\nTrustee Stephen Backer said the issue of health care costs was a problem, but one that had not yet been addressed at the level of the board. \nDaniel Rives, director of IU's benefit programs, said although the University did not contribute to retiree premiums, it did use the large number of employees to get preferential pricing by leveraging costs. \nPreferential pricing sets prices by taking into consideration the ability to purchase. \nRives said he will be discussing employee health care costs this Thursday at the board of trustees meeting. \n"(The trustees) have questions about health care costs and want to know how much the University is spending," Rives said.