LLNL and Retiree Health Care

From Inside Higher Ed:

A California appeals court said this week that the University of California owes retirees who worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory the university-sponsored group health insurance they were promised during their employment, reversing an earlier court decision saying otherwise. Several Livermore retirees sued the California system in 2010, saying that it effectively disowned them in terms of retiree health care when a private partnership started running the federal defense lab, in 2007. The retirees argued that their new plan, administered by the private partnership, had “significant disadvantages and no comparable new advantages when compared with the university-provided retiree medical benefit plan,” such as higher premium and higher monthly out-of-pocket costs. Thousands of people were affected by the change...

A spokesperson for the California system said it was “disappointed” in the decision and “considering our options as we review the court’s reasoning.”

Full story at:
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2018/08/03/appeals-court-says-livermore-lab-retirees-are-entitled-u-california-health

Note that this decision, if it isn't appealed or if it survives an appeal, tends to undermine the UC position that retiree health care is just a nice thing UC provides, but that it has no legal obligation to do so.