Does your take home pay in 1999 look about the same as it did in 1996, despite two pay increases?  That's because of the steady escalation in medical premiums that is certain to continue in the future. 

In 1997, when The Sun converted medical coverage to Aetna managed choice, an employee's weekly premium for family coverage was $13.35.  Today, with increased insurance costs as well as increases to the percentages, the premium for the same coverage is $21.03, a 57 percent increase.  For employees with individual coverage, the weekly premium has climbed to $8.06 from $5.14, also a 57 percent increase.  For those employees enrolled in HMOs, weekly premiums have climbed by similar amounts. These rates only apply to employees hired before June 22, 1996. 

Employees hired after that date are paying even more for their health insurance.  For Aetna managed choice coverage for a family, the weekly premium is now $32.87, which more than consumed the last $21 a week pay increase. 

Pretty soon all employees will be paying these high rates. Sun employees hired before June 22, 1996, pay 16 percent of their weekly health insurance premiums.  The Sun pays the remainder. Under the current contract language, The Sun has the right to increase the employee's share by 4 percentage points each year to a maximum of 25 percent. 

 The increases Aetna and the HMOs have already imposed have boosted Aetna's managed choice family coverage from $116.11 a week to the current rate of $131.47.  Family coverage for the Freestate Advantage program has jumped from $97.98 to $119.14. 

If The Sun decides to increase the employee's share to 20 percent next year and the insurance companies also raise their premiums by about seven percent, the employee's weekly cost for Aetna's family coverage will be about $28 a week.  This increase will consume almost half of the $19 a week pay raise the company is offering, leaving a lot less money to take home. 

*Please come to a negotiation briefing from the bargaining committee at noon Friday in the Calvert Street cafeteria.  Copy editors will be briefed Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the cafeteria.

*Mobilizers will meet on Saturday, June 12 at 10 a.m. at the Guild office, 415 St. Paul Place. All others are welcome.

*Members will meet June 15 at 6:30 p.m. at Center Stage to consider the company's "stock option" proposal.