No one needs reminding: we are in a time of enormous uncertainty about our nation’s future. We all know people who have lost their jobs, their benefits, and perhaps will also lose homes and any semblance of personal security. Even those of us with the good fortune to work at a stable public institution are not immune to the fears of terrorism that have overtaken the nation.

The state’s recent energy crisis has required the use of much of the state’s reserves. With the economy slowing down and a decline in the stock market, the state of California is projecting enormous losses in tax revenues. This year $98 million in funds for instructional equipment and scheduled maintenance were cut from the community colleges’ base budget. Next year, Glendale Community College will be hit along with every other state-funded institution when the new budget is presented in January 2002.

The inflation in medical care in the United States has been growing at over 11 percent. Large portions of the increase are due to the many new drugs available for every conceivable ailment — from sexual dysfunction to genetically caused diseases. We now can cure or at least make tolerable a range of problems that in the past caused death or disability. We all live longer, and many of us seem to take for granted the bodies we inhabit.

Obesity and diabetes have grown by 50 percent nationally over the last decade; children as well as adults are ending up on medication when they could have avoided the problem by appropriate choices in their diets and levels of physical activity. This is just one example of how we can improve our personal health and reduce our medical costs by proper lifestyle choices.

We are fortunate that GCC has supported employee wellness with a fitness center, staff development opportunities and generous leave provisions for family needs (those options reduce stress and are therefore part of our wellness package.)

American heath care is mostly a for-profit system with few exceptions (Kaiser is one not-for –profit exception). Americans with insurance fight for quality care and often worry that insurance companies place the bottom line above patient outcomes. Those without insurance rely on a hodgepodge of public health care systems which in L.A county are perennially underfunded and verging on collapse. Recent data tell us that HCA, the biggest U.S. hospital chain, reported profits up 22 percent for the second quarter, while Tenet Healthcare, the second largest hospital chain, reported a 40 percent profit increase!

In other words, someone is doing just fine — and our college is paying the price.

At GCC, employees receive either Kaiser HMO, Blue Shield HMO or Blue shield PPO. The rates of increase to the district are as follows for January 2002: Kaiser going up by 15 percent (plus a nonnegotiable change imposed by Kaiser for doctor visit co-pays — see related Kaiser

article in this issue). Blue Shield HMO going up by 27 percent. Blue Shield PPO going up 14 percent. It is now costing almost $10,000 to provide family coverage in the Blue Shield PPO plan. College-wide, the premium increases are resulting in $540,000 of additional costs.

The district budged for about 8 percent increases, which leaves a shortfall of approximately $250,000. So where do we find the money to fund the double-digit increases?

• One answer: change levels of service, increase co-pays, increase deductibles in order to reduce the increases.
  
• Another answer: use moneys that would otherwise go to salary adjustments and keep benefits at current levels.
  
• Another answer: cut programs for students to fund employee benefit costs.
  
• Another answer: require partial payments of premiums by employees.

Is this beginning to sound like the rock and a hard place?

The college community, primarily the two unions and the district, must come to grips with this crisis in health care costs. The Joint Labor Management Health Care committee (usually known as the Benefits Committee) will be meeting soon to discuss options and will invite the negotiators from both unions and management to hear the discussion.