Dear University of California President:

For years UC executives have dramatically increased what we pay for our healthcare – out of our paychecks, for our medications, and when we go to the doctor – making it unaffordable for all UC workers. In just the last two years, these increases have included:

• Unprecedented monthly premium increases

• 20% to nearly 200% increases in 2024

• Up to 11% increases in 2025

• Increasing co-pays and co-insurance, targeting and penalizing our most medically vulnerable co-workers and family members

• Co-insurance of 30% or up to $150 per month per medication, for people with cancer, HIV, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, and other serious illnesses

• Co-pay increases of up to 50%

• These were illegally imposed on some unions, leading to strikes

• Proposals to eliminate caps on premium increases for many union workers

While UC claims it wants to be the “employer of choice,” it also admits that it struggles to retain and recruit because wages, working conditions, and benefits lag behind those of competitors. This is leading to the worst staffing crisis in decades.

This is especially stark given that many healthcare and higher education employers provide family healthcare free of charge – including hospitals recently acquired by UC. If UC wants to be an “employer of choice,” it must respect frontline workers’ voices at both their bargaining tables and in healthcare plan negotiations – instead of passing costs onto UC’s frontline workforce.

As the President, we call on you to:

1. Reduce employee healthcare premiums for all plans and paybands to 2024 levels.

2. Freeze all plans at those levels for at least 3 years.

3. Eliminate co-insurance for specialty medications.

4. Freeze co-pays at 2024 levels for at least 3 years.

We will hold you accountable for the well-being of all UC workers and their healthcare.