Presentation to the VCCCD Board of Trustees
By Rene G. Rodriguez,
VCCCD Retirees’ Association President
September 10, 2019
Regarding Chancellor Greg Gillespie’s Health Benefits Proposal for VCCCD Retirees
My name is Rene Rodriguez. I am the president of the Ventura County Community College District Retiree’s Association.
I worked for the college district for 34 years, as a faculty member, as an institutional researcher for the district office, as a dean on all three campuses, and as a Vice President of Business Services at Ventura College and at Oxnard College.
To date, my wife Angela and I have been enjoying grade “A” health benefits for almost 50 years from the Ventura County Community College District. This excellent coverage was maintained throughout the years through negotiations with the bargaining units, and when necessary, the foregoing of pay raises. There have been a few glitches now and then, but the College District has always served the needs of active employees and retirees when they needed help regarding their coverage.
Now it seems that in one fell swoop, Chancellor Gillespie wants to replace the excellent health coverage that all active employees and retirees have enjoyed all these years, with the worst possible insurance coverage one can imagine, for a one-time savings of 10 to 12 million dollars.
Because of the limited time I have to make a presentation, I will first focus on the most outrageous and disturbing part of the plan that the Chancellor is proposing for retirees.
The part that I am referring to is under the heading of “Important Information” in the PERS Choice Supplemental Plan and reads as follows:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
“There is no vested right to receive any particular benefit set forth in the Plan. Plan benefits may be modified. Any modified benefit (such as the elimination of a particular benefit or an increase in the Member’s Copayment) applies to services or supplies furnished on or after the effective date of the modification.”
How could any sane person consider accepting an insurance policy that contains such a paragraph, that literally states that the plan you signed up for, “may be modified”, at any time, for any reason, at the discretion of CalPERS, which changes apply “on or after the effective date of the modification.”
THIS PARAGRAPH ALONE WOULD NEVER ALLOW ME TO CONSIDER SUCH A PLAN. THROUGH THIS PARAGRAPH ALONE, CALPERS IS TELLING US THAT THE PLAN IN OUR HANDS IS A FICTION, AND THAT ANY BENEFIT PROVIDED IN THAT PLAN MAY BE ELIMINATED OR HAVE ITS COPAYMENT INCREASED AT THE DISCRETION OF CALPERS.
With this unilateral control that CalPERS has over its health plans, neither the District office, nor its health broker Burnham, could interfere with such decisions. Only clients and their representative would have a right to go through a lengthy, exhausting and laborious process, which would most likely be to no avail. Since CalPERS is self-insured, it does not come under the jurisdiction of the State Commisioner of Insurance, and it can do whatever it pleases.
Secondly, I would like to mention two provisions that would affect me personally.
At retirement, Tier I employees, to which group I belong, are entitled to lifetime healthcare benefits.
Also, the settlement agreement reached by the district and the VCCCD Retirees’ Association in 2010 states that any retiree that is part of the settlement class, upon reaching the age of 80, that the retiree will be entitled to “lock in” the provisions found in the district health plan in effect at that time. I am part of that settlement class, and when I turn 80 next January, I will be entitled to the health plan provisions equivalent to those provided in the current Anthem Blue Cross plan.
I have already mentioned one difference above, the most egregious one, where CalPERS can make changes to the health plan willy-nilly at its own discretion. The current plan that I have under Anthem Blue Cross cannot make such changes.
I will mention two other important provisions in the CalPERS Choice plan that differs greatly from my current Anthem Blue Cross plan.
- In May of last year, I experienced a collapse of muscle strength in my legs and arms. I literally collapsed on our kitchen floor during a gathering with family. I could not move my arms or legs. After a few days in the Los Robles Hospital where various specialists looked at me, one, a neurologist figured out what was wrong with me. He gave me an IV replacing a protein that my body was not generating, and my strength returned to my arms and legs. I haven’t required another such treatment since then.
However, my cardiologist asked me to stop taking the statin drug that I had been taking for several years because one of the rare side-affects is the weakening of muscles. There is a new drug that had come out called Repatha with which he replaced the statin drug I was taking. This new drug has brought all my numbers to a normal range, and Anthem Blue Cross pays for Repatha including a copayment from me.
CalPERS Choice will not pay for this drug. Under “General Exclusions”, the CalPERS plan lists the following exclusion:
“Self-injectable drugs.
Injectable drugs which are self-administered by the subcutaneous route (under the skin) by the patient or Family Member. Drugs with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling for self-administration. Hypodermic syringes and/or needles when dispensed for use with self-injectable drugs or medications.”
Repatha is a “self-injectable” drug, and CalPERS Choice will not pay for it, making CalPERS Choice nowhere equivalent to our current Anthem Blue Cross plan.
2. Starting about five years ago, I got my first hearing aid. Our current plan under Anthem Blue Cross pays 80% of costs, and I pay 20% of the costs. CalPERS Choice pays $1000 for a hearing aid. My first hearing aid cost $5,000. Anthem Blue Cross paid $4,000 and I paid $1,000. Since CalPERS only pays $1,000, I would have had to pay $4,000. With CalPERS, the cost burden would be reversed: I would pay 80% of the cost, and CalPERS would pay 20% of the cost.
Once again, CalPERS Choice can hardly be considered anywhere close to being equivalent to the Anthem Blue Cross plan that we have now.
There are many other important reasons why CalPERS should not be given any consideration at all. I only mention three due to time constraints, and on this basis alone, I would highly recommend to the Board that the Chancellor and the bargaining units find something that can seriously be considered by active employees and retirees.
I would also like to thank Chancellor Greg Gillespie for including representatives from the Retirees’ Association in the District Health Benefits Committee, which has helped keep retirees apprised of health benefit changes under consideration, and from whom the district has benefited because of the retirees’ long history and knowledge of district and healthcare issues.
Thank you.
