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CCA’s Part-time Issues Committee includes (from left) Chair Pamela Hanford, Fergus Currie, Jim Weir, Kathleen O’Brien, John Martin, DeAnna Jensen and David Milroy. |
With health insurance skyrocketing and funding for the government’s special part-time health benefits program dwindling, part-time instructors are again making health benefits a priority.
Meeting during the recent CCA Winter Conference, the Part-time Issues Committee made it clear it will move ahead to make sure adjunct faculty has access to decent and affordable health care coverage.
Benefits fund hasn’t grown
Although a $1 million fund was established 10 years ago to help subsidize 50 percent of health benefits costs for part-time instructors, the fund hasn’t grown in the past decade.
“While the state legislature demonstrated its intent to assist contingent faculty when passing the Part-Time Community College Faculty Health Insurance Program, the result has not been significant,” said CCA Part-time Faculty Director Pamela Hanford, who teaches English at Shasta College.
She noted that since the fund was established, it has not been augmented, and the districts that participate may only receive 17 percent reimbursement instead of the promised 50 percent.
“Additionally, many districts, including my own, refuse to participate in the state program at all, so many part-time faculty are forced to either exist without insurance coverage, or to pay high premiums through private plans,” she said.
Some go without
As a result, Hanford said there are contingent faculty on her campus who either go without health care, or who sometimes receive donated medical services from doctors sympathetic to their plight.
“Many go without vision or dental care, and many must come to work sick because they can’t afford to take time off work,” she said.
The Part-time Issues Committee plans to explore forming a statewide alliance of contingent faculty that could then join an existing trust, which could provide more affordable options.
“We will continue working on this problem until we have a resolution,” Hanford said.