UCSB FA Calls on Cottage Hospital and the University of California to Provide Local Medical Care for UCSB Staff and Faculty

New health care plans will be discussed at a UCSB Academic Senate Town Hall Meeting, Thursday Oct. 3, 11am-1:30pm, UCEN, State Street Room. All Anthem plans will be discontinued, and faculty are very concerned that the only Tier One PPO plan now available will be UC Care, which relies primarily on campus medical centers. Since UCSB has no such center, and Cottage Hospital has not agreed to join the UC Care Provider Network, UCSB employees living locally will have to travel to Lompoc, Ventura, Santa Maria or San Luis Obispo for health care, and will have no more than six weeks to find new providers. At least 750 employees and their families will be directly affected. This is an unduly burdensome prospect, and clearly and grossly discriminatory, since other UC campuses will not likely be so affected. Moreover, the UC Office of the President has, until now, kept these plans a secret, and requested that UC Senate Faculty Welfare Committees follow suit, making it impossible for faculty and staff to evaluate the process that has brought us to this point (details of the new plans are expected to be released on October 1, 2013; Open Enrollment is scheduled to begin on October 28, 2013). The UCSB Faculty Association strongly opposes this change and the secrecy of its planning. Accordingly:

· We urge UCOP to come to terms with Cottage Hospital, and to make public a detailed account of its negotiations with Cottage and other local providers, with all relevant documents.

· We urge Cottage Hospital to pursue negotiations with UCOP in the good faith and spirit of service appropriate to its non-profit status. We ask Cottage Hospital to make public an account of its negotiations with UCOP to date, with all relevant documents.

· We call upon Chancellor Henry Yang to support continued negotiations between UCOP and local providers, and inform the campus of the results of his efforts on behalf of UCSB faculty, staff, and higher administration.

· We demand that UCOP desist from hiding information of any kind from employees and citizens who have every constitutional right to it.