The recent changes to the health care insurance plans available to UC faculty and staff have resulted in a radical reduction in both choices and quality of our insurance options. UC Care, a new “self-funded” PPO medical insurance plan that replaces Blue Cross Plus, Blue Cross PPO, and Anthem plans, does not provide equivalent coverage for campuses that do not have a medical center, such as UCR. This leads to serious inequities between faculty/staff on those campuses with medical centers and faculty/staff on those campuses without them. The UC Select (Tier 1) network of providers and facilities is grossly inadequate, for it excludes many of the best doctors and hospitals that were covered under the Blue Cross plans.

For example, Riverside Community Hospital, a partner with UCR's new medical school, and Loma Linda University Medical Center are NOT included in the UC Select network. The nearest UC Select hospital, Parkview Community Hospital, does not have a trauma center and has twice almost gone bankrupt. This leaves UCR faculty and staff with the poor choice of paying 20% co-payments for care at the best facilities, using the facilities in the UC Select network or choosing another health insurance plan.

The employees of some UC campuses are facing discriminatory treatment that seriously degrades the quality of our individual lives and those of our families, as well as undermining the collective welfare of our campus community. Both the process and the result of changing our healthcare options are unworthy of the University of California.

We demand an expanded set of Tier 1 options under UC Care so that campuses without medical centers can provide the same level of care as those with medical centers.We demand that the Riverside Community Hospital and the Loma Linda University Medical Center be added to the Tier 1 option in the UC Careplan immediately. We also demand that the addition of these hospitals to UC Select must be done and announced before the closing of the open enrollment period on November 26, 2013.