January 8, 2015--Poor You
According to a recent story in the New York Times, many of the very same Harvard professors who were in such demand as advisors to the Obama administration as it fashioned the legislation that launched the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) are now whining that because of it they have to pay a little more for the health care coverage that Harvard provides faculty and staff.
Outraged by this turn of events, the Faculty of Arts and Science voted overwhelmingly to oppose those changes in Harvard policy that would have them, for example, pay an annual deductible of $250 for individuals and $750 for families. This for what everyone acknowledges is platium-level or Cadillac coverage.
Some say this is punishing the sick since for many members of the faculty and they dependents, as for the rest of us, costs really begin to accrue when one is in fact sick or in need of extensive testing and even hospitalization.
In the Times piece there is scant recognition, whatever the professors feel about having to dip a bit deeper into their wallets, of how unbelievable privileged they still are in contrast to almost every other American affected by the health care system they helped devise.
What insensitivity. What obliviousness. What hypocrisy.
To see what kind of a financial burden the new guidelines represent for Harvard faculty, I checked to see what average annual salaries are for professors.
According to the Harvard Crimson, in 2012, on average assistant professors earned $109,800 a year; associate professors $124,900; and full professors $198,400. Not noted is the fact that most faculty at places such as Harvard typically earn at least the equivalent of an additional one-quarter of their annual salaries as consultants.
And, the new Harvard health care guidelines indicate that anyone--faculty or staff--earning $90,000 or less per year (almost everyone else) will be assisted to pay their copays and deductibles.
As an NYU full professor friend, who acknowledges he is doing very well, used to say about similar circumstances, "Poor you."
Outraged by this turn of events, the Faculty of Arts and Science voted overwhelmingly to oppose those changes in Harvard policy that would have them, for example, pay an annual deductible of $250 for individuals and $750 for families. This for what everyone acknowledges is platium-level or Cadillac coverage.
Some say this is punishing the sick since for many members of the faculty and they dependents, as for the rest of us, costs really begin to accrue when one is in fact sick or in need of extensive testing and even hospitalization.
In the Times piece there is scant recognition, whatever the professors feel about having to dip a bit deeper into their wallets, of how unbelievable privileged they still are in contrast to almost every other American affected by the health care system they helped devise.
What insensitivity. What obliviousness. What hypocrisy.
To see what kind of a financial burden the new guidelines represent for Harvard faculty, I checked to see what average annual salaries are for professors.
According to the Harvard Crimson, in 2012, on average assistant professors earned $109,800 a year; associate professors $124,900; and full professors $198,400. Not noted is the fact that most faculty at places such as Harvard typically earn at least the equivalent of an additional one-quarter of their annual salaries as consultants.
And, the new Harvard health care guidelines indicate that anyone--faculty or staff--earning $90,000 or less per year (almost everyone else) will be assisted to pay their copays and deductibles.
As an NYU full professor friend, who acknowledges he is doing very well, used to say about similar circumstances, "Poor you."
Labels: Affordable Care Act, Harvard, Harvard Crimson, New York Times, Obamacare, Professor Salaries
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:50 AM
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