Editor’s note: University of Nebraska Vice President for Business and Finance David Lechner is sharing the following message on 2006 benefit options with all university employees.
Around Nov. 14, you will receive the annual NUFlex packet with specific information about your 2006 benefit options. Despite the rising costs of health care and health insurance, which you have probably read or heard about in recent weeks, active employees will see only modest increases in their cost of medical coverage next year. We are also offering additional benefits. The changes are summarized below.
Costs of Basic Option for 2006 (Low and High Option will remain the same)
- “Employee only” coverage will increase $6 per month.
- “Employee/child” coverage will increase $10 per month.
- “Employee/spouse” coverage will increase $16 per month.
- “Family” coverage will increase $20 per month.
Additional benefits for 2006
- We are taking two steps with the hope of increasing wellness:
1) First, we are increasing the first dollar wellness coverage for routine, preventative services per individual from $150 to $250 per year.
2) We are going even further in creating a greater pool of dollars for children in that all-important first year of life. Our second new initiative creates an additional $250 pool of dollars (for a total of $500) for children one year of age and under, designed to cover the predominance of checkups on top of vaccinations which are already covered.
- There will no longer be a deductible applied to generic drug purchases.
Deductibles and co-payments
- There will be no changes in deductible, co-insurance or stop-loss for the medical plan.
- There will no changes in pharmacy co-payment amounts.
Providing a competitive benefits package at a reasonable cost is increasingly important as we seek to recruit and retain excellent employees. We will continue to seek ways to improve our benefits while keeping the cost affordable for individuals and families. If you have any questions, please submit them via e-mail to Benefits@nebraska.edu.