Part-timers Losing Money

Rising health insurance costs will leave some Glendale Community College instructors losing chunks of their paychecks, with one part-time faculty member facing the possibility of taking home only 40 percent of her monthly salary due to increased coverage rates, faculty representatives said.

Harriet Cohen is one of the college’s 61 adjunct, or part-time, instructors who rely on a shrinking assistance fund to help them cover payments to health care provider Blue Shield of California.

Cohen, like other instructors participating in the HMO health care program for part-time faculty, recently received a notice that her monthly payment for a family of three will skyrocket from a monthly rate of $731 earlier this year to $1,284 starting in January, she said.

Part-time instructors, who teach more than half of the college’s courses, make less than $3,000 per month on average, said Phyllis Eckler, the second vice president for the faculty union, the Glendale College Guild.

“The bottom line is: You can’t afford it,” said Cohen, adding that she and others like her are reluctant to leave the college’s group health care plan to face the possibility of higher premiums in the open market, possibly because of preexisting conditions.

The college, which did not initially offer health care assistance for adjunct faculty, began receiving fixed, lump-sum contributions from the state to cover half of those fees. Those state contributions never grew to match inflation or increased demand and have since shrunk proportionally, now representing only 6 percent of adjunct faculty health care costs, Eckler said. The Guild, the college and other organizations have since attempted to pool money to aid adjunct faculty in covering the remaining costs.

The Guild recently had to institute a $3,000 annual cap on assistance for each plan because of the rising costs and shrinking resources, leading to a recent $389 jump in Cohen’s costs, she said.

The college only contributes $85,000 annually to the fund, which currently stands at about $174,000, and although the fund was originally expected to continue supporting faculty at current rates for two years, it may not last that long because of increased premiums that would begin with the new year, Eckler said.

“The ultimate goal is to get the [college] district to put more money into this pot,” Eckler said. “Because it’s going to run out of money.”

But the Guild did not raise concerns about health care costs to the college administration when it had the chance to do so in its annual contract negotiations, said Larry Serot, vice president of administrative services.

“They did not ask for any increase,” said Serot, referring to the two additional concerns, aside from salary, that the union and the college were each allowed to raise during negotiations. “So that’s not on the table for the coming year.”

The college did take a step toward helping to contribute to the fund last year, when it committed to making a regular contribution, but would be strained to support a program that the state created, but has not supported, Serot said.

“The state never increased its original allocation,” Serot said of the initial sum committed by the state to assist adjunct faculty with health care costs. “So that, as more and more people jumped onto the bandwagon and as health care costs continued to rise, instead of providing 50 percent, it now provides [money for 6 percent of premium costs].”

Concerns about health care benefits for part-time instructors reached a fever pitch at the most recent meeting of the college’s board of trustees Nov. 17, with Cohen imploring the board to find ways to contribute more to the dwindling fund.

“I acknowledge the budget crisis,” Cohen said at the meeting. “But even in tough times, it should not take that much money to help the adjunct faculty.”