University of Vermont wrestles with retiree medical benefits

At their meeting in May, University of Vermont trustees found themselves staring at a bar graph that showed a projected university expense over the next half century, a bulging diagram that peaked at nearly $35 million in 2038. The expense was for medical benefits covering retirees. The cumulative cost was startling: $1.3 billion to continue with the university’s current “defined benefit” plan for retiree medical coverage — a plan to which both retirees and the university contribute and which provides coverage regardless of cost. It’s a plan that UVM Vice President for Finance Richard Cate pronounced “not sustainable,” adding: “We need to address the situation in the near future.”

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