For now, the Runaway Train on retiree healthcare has been put on a siding

Sometimes it pays to yell, scream, and carry on. We now have word that on Wednesday at Academic Council, UC president Napolitano announced that the decision had been made to replace only Health Net Seniority Plus with a Medicare Advantage plan for 2020 and to make no changes to our two PPO offerings at this time. Faculty representatives were unanimous in saying that the Health Net change was a "no brainer" and should actually result in improved access. (We'll see how those under Health Net respond, both to the announcement and to the actual change.) Those emeriti and retirees concerned about losing their two PPOs can rest easy for now, though we do expect very high premium increases for those plans and this issue will be revisited at some point in the future no doubt. There has so far been no public announcement of this and Napolitano did not say who had won the bid.

We continue to point to the need for provisions in the eventual final contract for the new Medicare Advantage plan to prevent horror stories and to have mechanisms to address such stories if they nonetheless arise. See our prior posting at:
https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2019/06/unexercised-bargaining-power-and.html