EQUIFLASH [DENTALCARE AND VISIONCARE CANCELLATION]

[CAEA e-drive]

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DENTALCARE AND VISIONCARE CANCELLATION
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Equity conducted a comprehensive survey of insurance for Equity members in
2011. The top ranking benefit desired by members was dental insurance.
Basic dental insurance is very costly because almost everyone makes a
claim, and as a result, the premiums must be greater than the total
claims. Even the most modest dental plan costs around $25 per month (for
only $500 yearly coverage), and more meaningful coverage costs double that
amount, or four to six times that amount for family coverage.

The insurance survey response clearly identified that the members'
tolerance to pay the required premium cost was very low. Equity’s
insurance plan could never absorb a majority of the cost for dental
coverage.

As Equity was not able to fund a standard dental insurance plan, other
options were investigated. A program was found that provided a 25%
discount on dental care from a network of dentists. At the time it was
only available to Ontario residents but a national plan was in the
development stage.

The DentalCare program was introduced in 2013. The VisionCare program was
added in 2014. The programs were expensive but the Association hoped that
the benefits would prove worthwhile if members' uptake was sizeable enough
to justify the cost of $130,000 per year paid for from insurance fund
surpluses. Preliminary response from the membership was surprisingly
negative. There was a lot of confusion about how the program actually
worked and many members were angry that their dentists were not part of
the network and therefore wouldn’t provide a discount.

Despite the unenthusiastic initial reaction, member uptake was slow but
steady. When program enrolment began to plateau, VisionCare was added with
the expectation that member enrolment would continue to increase with a
new discount incentive. Although both of these benefits were promoted
extensively (via EQUITYONLINE, social media, and flyers distributed to all
members via the semi-annual dues mailing), the levels of enrolment did not
meet expectations.

Only 822 members have activated their cards. A small number enrolled
either only for DentalCare (50 people) or VisionCare care (20). It is
estimated that as much as 20% of the members enrolled did not ever avail
themselves of the services offered.

After two years, as part of an Equity-initiated benefit review, our
DentalCare and VisionCare provider emailed out a member survey on March
29, 2016. The following statistics are informative:
• 5,994 Equity members were sent surveys
• 1,319 (22%) members responded of which only 300 (5%) indicated that they
had activated their cards
• 584 members added comments, 82 of which were questions or comments only
tangentially related to the survey.

The survey responses were as follows:
• Positive: 143 (28.4%)
• Neutral or somewhat negative: 251 (50%)
• Overtly negative: 108 (21.5%)

The overwhelmingly large number of negative and neutral responses,
combined with hostile or angry feedback comments and low member enrolment,
clearly indicated that the cost of the programs did not provide a
satisfactory member benefit. After much thought and with great
disappointment, Equity determined that we could not justify the cost of
programs that so few members found advantageous.

Equity finished negotiations to sever the DentalCare and VisionCare
programs in September 2016 but it took additional time to negotiate a
preferential rate for members wanting to continue private coverage. (Usual
rates are $45 for single coverage, $65 for a couple and $85 for a family.)
It was important to ensure that members using the programs had a low-cost
option to maintain Network coverage. That cost will only be $20 a year for
Equity members and includes dependent coverage. We feel this is an
extremely reasonable rate for the benefit offered.
Any Equity member in good standing may continue ‎to use the DentalCare and
‎VisionCare‎ ‎Network, including signing up for first time benefits, until
December 31, 2016. Equity members who want to take advantage of the
Network as of January 1st, 2017 are eligible for the $20 annual rate by
using the promo code “Equity.”

Recognizing that the membership has a limited capacity to increase
premiums, your Association will continue to look for cost effective ways
to maximize benefits.
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Canadian Actors' Equity Association
44 Victoria Street, 12th floor
Toronto, ON  M5C 3C4
communications at caea.com
http://www.caea.com

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