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.
