Martin Luther King once said, “All life is interrelated,” meaning that what affects some of us will eventually affect us all. Recent events regarding possible changes to the UNM Retiree Health Benefits brought this to mind.
Beginning earlier this year, changes to UNM employee retiree health care benefits were made in response to revisions by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, specifically GASB-45. These changes are complicated and this space does not permit a detailed breakdown of these changes, but suffice it to say that these changes affected all organizations, not just UNM, and did require action on the part of the UNM Board of Regents.
President Robert Frank was directed by the regents to prepare a plan to address the requirements of GASB-45. A task force comprising staff, faculty and retirees was created to work on this over the winter holiday last year. The task force worked expeditiously to prepare various alternatives for consideration.
All changes required by GASB-45 to the retiree health care benefits would include increases in costs, changes in benefits or coverages. To mitigate the impact of these changes, the task force balanced all these impacts and, in essence, “spread the pain” across all current and future employees as well as our retirees.
The proposal was eventually approved after revisions by the regents took effect earlier this year.
It was hoped that no further changes would be needed anytime soon.
However, over the past few weeks, questions posed by some of the regents at the Regents Audit and Compliance Committee as well as the Finance and Facilities meeting caused considerable concern and anguish among UNM staff, faculty and retirees and led many to believe further and potentially even more devastating changes were being contemplated.
To allay those fears, Regent President Jack Fortner issued a public statement that acknowledged those concerns and also expressed his desire on behalf of the board to slow down events until the regents have had an opportunity to fully understand the many complicated aspects of this issue.
While these concerns may have subsided for the time being due to Regent Fortner’s statement, there is still considerable uneasiness. By promising to delay action until May, the regents have temporarily defused a tense situation.
However, the questions asked by the regents, as well as many questions staff and faculty have, remain unanswered. To that end, we are working on providing a venue for all to ask their questions. This would be the first of several efforts to provide all UNM employees with the information needed to make sound decisions about their insurance needs.
By collecting all questions and obtaining answers in a timely fashion, we can ensure that all UNM staff and faculty have the time to thoroughly assess all the changes that have occurred, determine their appropriate course of action and provide the administration and regents with their comments in an open, productive dialogue.
At the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, Benjamin Franklin commented that “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
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We believe that together, staff and faculty can support all employees — past, present and future — as well as ensure the viability and preservation of all our benefits.
Gene V. Henley, Richard Holder
President, President
UNM Staff Council, UNM Faculty Senate
