Moving up a tier

Some faculty and staff will get an improvement in their retiree health coverage:

To simplify administration and respond to employee concerns, UC is changing the eligibility rules for retiree health benefits.

In an email letter to faculty and staff, Dwaine Duckett, vice president of human resources, announced that policy-covered employees eligible for UCRP on June 30, 2013, will be subject to the eligibility rules that were in place as of that date.

This means that those employees who previously had been moved to the new 2013 eligibility rules because they were not vested in UCRP on June 30, 2013 or because their age plus years of UCRP service was less than 50 at that time will no longer be subject to the eligibility rules that went into effect on July 1, 2013.

“Many of our employees who were close to meeting the criteria for the grandfathering provision were understandably concerned about the rule of 50,” Duckett said. This keeps people under the rules that were in place when they were hired as long as they stay at UC.

The change also simplifies administration of retirement benefits and is clearer to employees, Duckett said...

Full UC announcement at http://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2014/05/uc-simplifies-retiree-health-benefits-rules.html

Still, even if you're in a better tier, it's best not to get sick, as yours truly can attest based on recent experience: