The AAUP Tries to Cure What Ails

by TAA Staff THE AAUP NOW offers medical insurance to its members, who may choose from among four plans. A short-term plan is available to members, like temporary lecturers between jobs, who need coverage for a few months. The major-medical option offers full coverage to individuals and families. Participants may select a physician of their choice, may see a specialist and receive emergency care when necessary. The Preferred Provider Option allows participants to select among a list of primary-care physicians and specialists. Participants may select a physician outside the network but will incur higher costs then they would had they remained in the network. The final option is a medical-savings account, ideal for people with routine medical costs. This option allows one to transfer a fixed amount of pretax income into the account and to spend it on prescription drugs and other medical-related expenses. For years the AAUP had offered only a major-medical plan, but the annual deductible of $25,000 priced it out of existence. The new plans offer a range of deductibles, depending on the monthly premium. A single graduate student in Cleveland may pay a premium of as little as $80 a month, whereas a graduate student with a wife and two children in Los Angeles may pay as much as $260 per month. Participants may enroll in more than one plan for an additional premium. "It's an a la carte approach to health care," said Jonathan Knight, Associate Secretary of the AAUP, who believes flexibility is one of the program's chief assets. "Our members can tailor an affordable plan to meet their needs." Annual dues of membership in the AAUP, which are less than $50 for a graduate student or adjunct, are the only additional expense for participants in any of the plans. The option of medical coverage would have remained a quixotic goal without the carriers to provide it. Knight is grateful that Allanz, Fortes, Trust Market and other little-known companies have partnered with the AAUP in offering its members coverage. These companies require a participant to complete a survey of her medical history, and they may exclude anyone in poor health. But Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York require insurance carriers to accept everyone regardless of health. For this reason the AAUP is unable to offer coverage in those states. There is no prescription-drug coverage. These exceptions aside, Knight believe that "having something is better than nothing." The problem, as Knight sees it, is that many faculty have nothing. He estimates that 45 percent of the roughly 1 million college faculty are adjuncts or temporary instructors., few of whom have medical insurance says Knight. But he worries that adjuncts without coverage may not know of the program. To combat this problem, the AAUP has circulated leaflets to its 45,000 members, and the insurance carriers are advertising their participation in the program. The AAUP has also asked other disciplinary organizations to tell their members of the program. The effect of this advertising is hard to gauge. The AAUP is tabulating the number of participants in its program, but Knight does not yet have even preliminary figures. Ultimately he hopes universities will make the AAUP's program superfluous by offering their graduate students, adjuncts and temporary faculty insurance. Knight admits that he sees no evidence of a shift toward universities providing insurance to all their workers. Change will only come, he believes, from a ground swell of pressure from adjuncts. Universities must discard their penchant for cutting costs in favor of a conviction that adjuncts are valuable members of their university. "Their contributions are more than fleeting," said Knight. "Without part-timers most programs would sink." But he doesn't expect universities to mend their ways overnight. "This is a tough business," he lamented.