The University of Michigan Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs met Monday afternoon to discuss recommendations on updated retiree health insurance plans brought by the Committee on the Economic and Social Well-Being of the Faculty and to honor departing SACUA members at their final meeting of their term.
SACUA discussed revising a letter from the CESWF detailing concerns and recommendations from retired faculty about retirement health benefits. This letter has not yet been made available to the public.
Luke McCarthy, Faculty Senate Office director, said one of the issues with the new health care plan is the reduction in the number of providers covered by insurance,specifically the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, which serves many U-M retirees.
“The old plan was the comprehensive provider network and the new one is listed as a comprehensive provider network,” McCarthy said. “It turned out that after the switch happened, it became effective in January that the new network … percentages (of the new plan compared to the old) were 95% of Michigan based providers are still in network and 92% nationally.”
Rebekah Modrak, Art & Design professor and SACUA member, said the changes to health care coverage would impact current and future U-M retirees across the country.
“It does affect more faculty than just in Arizona,” Modrak said. “We have faculty writing in from Albuquerque that the number of doctors they had access to was greatly reduced. We had retired faculty who regularly travel who, on a moment’s notice, need to see a doctor for their condition. And now they’re afraid to travel because they don’t know if they’ll have access to a doctor as they’re moving around.”
Modrak also spoke to the future of the letter and said extensive work needs to be done before submitting the recommendation to the university.
“I agree that a lot of the recommendations here are broad and not necessarily what we really want going forward,” Modrak said. “I think it’s going to take several meetings this summer, with retirees and with staff from the University of Michigan to develop a series of recommendations that are more specific.”
The meeting concluded with a celebration for departing members as their terms came to an end, including Vice Chair Damani Partridge, member Lindsay Admon and member Silvia Pedraza.
In his parting words, Partridge said he enjoyed the three years he spent as SACUA Vice Chair.
“I really appreciate the time and the kind of conversations we’ve had here,” Partridge said. “It’s been a really nice collaborative experience. So I really appreciate the opportunity to participate. Thank you.”
SACUA will continue to work on the letter of recommendation throughout the summer.
Summer News Editor Edra Timmerman can be reached at edrakmt@umich.edu.