Employees Want Improvements in Health Coverage
By Shelley Basinger

Campus employees take care of the grounds and help you in Student Stores. But many of them are unhappy with the state health care plan.

About 590,000 people are covered under the state health care plan. Employee representative Katherine Graves says she reads e-mails every day from employees who can no longer afford the coverage.

One worker complains to Graves about the coverage. The message reads: “Hello Katherine, please add my voice to those of the many UNC-CH employees. I received a promotion and raise last year, but the increase in premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket spending wiped that out.”

“If you make in the lower salary range, and you cover your family, then you’re spending over $400 a month,” Graves said.

The state health plan’s Chief Operating Officer Dan Soper says his team recognizes the current plan’s shortcomings.

“The lack of choice in terms of products and the lack of affordability are the two main concerns for our members,” Soper said.

Soper said there’s one pending initiative for the choice of a Preferred Provider Organization, or PPO. Members would avoid deductibles and co-insurance for doctor visits. Premium payments would be reduced. And there would be an added tier option for an employee with a spouse and no family, which has been a big criticism of the current plan.

If the PPO choice is approved, it would be available for members of the state health care plan in January 2007.

“We’re a very member-centric organization now,” Soper said. “And it’s important for us to hear what our customers are saying because, if we don’t hear that, then we could be addressing all the wrong concerns.”

Graves says she will continue receiving emails from UNC-CH employees until the plan is
affordable for everyone.

“With the number of UNC-CH employees,” Graves reads. “I can’t believe the University and state can’t come up with a better option for us. Now I can remember the days when the state wasn’t great, but the benefits were. Now neither one is worth sticking around for.”