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Friday, October 13, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Workers at KU examine options for health plans
By Doug Fishback Kansan staff writer
This article is the first in a three-part series.
After the announcement last month of premium increases in the 1990 state health insurance package, University of Kansas employees now can consider their options and enroll in elements of the state-sponsored plan.
Open enrollment for Blue Cross and Blue Shield coverage began Oct. 2 and continues through Oct. 31, according to Blue Cross literature
Kansas state employees can renew or change their coverage during the period.
According to a newsletter sent to state employees last month, employee-only coverage will not cost more next year, but premiums for spouse, child and full-family coverage will increase under all six plans in the state package.
Only two of the six plans are available to KU employees living in Douglas County, The state. Select them and HMO Kansas, also offered by Blue Cross.
A KU professor earning more than $30,000 a year and insuring his or her spouse and children should expect to pay nearly $210 a month for Blue Select coverage in 1990, a $25 per month increase from this year. If the professor were to limit the family's health care to doctors on the Blue Select preferred physicians list, he or she would be responsible for paying
20 percent of the family's medical costs, up to $1,000.
The Blue Select plan differs from employee insurance plans at some of KU's peer institutions.
The same professor, under the University of Oklahoma's self-financed plan, which is administered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield, would pay $13 a month less than at KU. The Oklahoma professor would have a $500 deductible and a 15 percent copayment, said Jean Davis, an employee at the OU purchasing and risk management office.
At the University of Arkansas, the professor would pay $96 less a month, with a family deductible of $400 and a 20 percent co-payment, said Laurie Carney, Arkansas insurance representative.
The University of Missouri at Columbia has its own insurance system, under which the professor would pay $153 a month less than at KU for a $500 deductible, or $107 less a month for a $100 deductible. The University of Missouri employee copayment is 20 percent of medical costs, said John Blakemore, supervisor of the MU employee benefits office.
Under HMO Kansas, the alternative to Blue Select for state employees in Douglas and other counties, the professor insuring his or her own family would pay a monthly premium of $242, with co-payments for some services and no deductible, according to the newsletter.
School Monthly Premium Deductible Employee Co-Payment
University of Kansas $210 $0 for approved list of doctors 20%, up to $1,000 $400 30%, up to $2,000
University of Oklahoma $187 $500 15%
University of Arkansas $104 $400 20%
University of Missouri Columbia $147 or $500 or 20% or $193 $100 20%
Many universities offer faculty insurance packages
HMOs. or health maintenance
Annette Stenner/KANSAN
organizations, focus on an ongoing program to maintain health, instead of on at-need care. HMO subscribers pay regular premiums, but they do not pay deductibles, which are standard for insurers. said Madi Vannaman, acting benefits manager for the Kansas Health Benefits Administration.
"That is attractive to younger, healthier people who think they are not going to utilize their health care services much." Vannaman said.
Reports from KU's office of institutional research and planning show that nearly 3,700 state employees, faculty and staff among them, are employed on the Lawrence campus and are eligible for full-time employment. Of the 3,700, nearly 3,400 are enrolled in 1989 state-sponsored plans.
Mildred Smith, director of the office of staff benefits, said the difference in the two numbers was caused by those who chose not to purchase state-plan coverage and delays in enrollment figure updates, which reflect new enrollees.
The reports show that the 1989 Blue Select program covers 1,634 KU employees, and HMO Kansas has 1,570 KU subscribers.
The nearly 200 remaining KU policy holders are insured by other programs in the state package, because they live in counties where other programs are offered, Smith said.
Vannaman said several national and state trends contributed to premium increases.
Nationwide, insurance policy holders pay for increasing expenses that are a result of rising medical technology costs and the nursing shortage, she said. The spiraling cost of medical malpractice insurance also gets passed on.
State-level factors that contribute to premium increases for Kansas employees include state-mandated provisions for mental health service and drug rehabilitation coverage, Vannaman said.
More than 50 percent of this also contributes to higher premiums, she said.
Kansas also has the sixth oldest average population in the nation, Vannaman said, which brings higher medical costs and, in turn, higher insurance premiums. Blue Cross supplies coverage for 97 percent of the state's 7,000 retirees.
The higher state premiums come on the heels of losses declared by Blue Cross officials, who say that the company paid out more in claims than it collected in premiums during past years.
One explanation for the loss is that younger, typically healthier employees have been drawn away from traditional insurance plans and toward HMOs, taking their premium dollars with them, she said. Such "adverse selection" leaves a relatively high-risk group enrolled in the traditional insurance plans. Betzen said that group typically was older and required more medical care.
From 1985 to 1988, Blue Cross lost $16 million on the state health plan, said Mary Betzen, Blue Cross spokesman.
Ethnic culture to be sampled in Lawrence
By Jennifer Metz Kansan staff writer
Ethnic food booths, art and cultural demonstrations will be scattered throughout downtown Lawrence Saturday.
The second annual Celebration of Cultures Festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow on Eighth Street between Vermont and New Hampshire streets.
Martha Bryant, director of Downtown Lawrence, said about 5,000 people were expected to attend this year's festival which will feature more than 40 individual booths.
Educational booths will be set up to provide cultural information, and groups will set up booths to sell things such as artwork, she said.
"In many respects food will be the highlight of the festival," Bryant said.
Passers-by will be able to taste ethnic foods such as Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, German, Japanese and Mexican.
A tent also will be set up in the parking lot at Eighth and Vermont streets as a stage for cultural demonstrations. Some expressive cultural displays will include Tae-Kwon-Do demonstrations at 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Celtic music at 1:10 p.m., Moehlisch ballet Club from Haskell Indian Junior College at 2:15 p.m., dancing at 3:50 p.m. by the University of Kansas Japanese club and a fashion show of many cultures at 5:30 p.m.
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The festival is free, said Nancy Bjorge, chairman of the Celebration of Cultures Corp.
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