Insurance Premiums

ted · February 2007

Can an employer state that health insurance premiums will be $50.00 higher for employee + spouse if the spouse has insurance available at their workplace but elects to go onto spouses policy instead.

Is that clear as mud?
Example:
Employee + Spouse and spouse is not offered insurance at his/her company or does not work.

$150.00 month Premium

Employee + Spouse and spouse is eligible for insurance with his/her company.

$200.00 month premium.

marc · February 2007

Now that is a bit of a punitive twist.

Lots of companies talk about rewarding EEs to when spouses and/or children are put on a different company. I have not heard of charging more.

I suppose there could be some title vii issues if a significant portion of those that would be charged more are in a protected class, but that seems to be a stretch.

I also beleive you cannot single out individuals, but have to deal with whole groups. For instance, adminstrative personnel might have a different deal than factory floor workers, but I don't think floor worker A can have a different deal than floor worker b for the same coverage.

E Wart · February 2007

Just wondering how you will know so you can "enforce this"? (I am one of those "doubly insured", for a lot of reasons that I won't go into (and not because I have medical problems) but I rarely use either and almost never my husband's coverage.... so, they are actually making money off of me because I pay the premium and don't use it.

E Wart

HRVolley · February 2007

I am in the same boat personally. My husbands insurance would be cheaper covering both of us, than by myself at my employer. But, my husbands insurance mandates that if I have insurance available, I must take mine before his.
You might try that approach.

C Wilson · February 2007

We looked into doing something similar two years ago & didn't find anything that would legally prevent us from doing so. However, it does depend on the employees being honest with you about their spouses ability to get coverage with his/her employer. In our case it would have had more of an impact on lower paid employees. We decided against it because we didn't want to make insurance so expensive that employees couldn't afford it.

Irie · February 2007

We looked into this as well but decided the administration (read: policing) would be too much of a nightmare so we dropped the idea.

dixied · February 2007

My husband's company has this in effect. I am covered at no cost through my company, so I am not affected. But, he would have to pay a higher premium if I declined my company's insurance and opted to enroll with his.

ACU Frank · February 2007

The company I recently left had that arrangement. I wasn't affected, but as the HRM I quickly grew tired of explaining it to employees. The practice is actually becoming more common.

Riva · March 2007

We have such a policy. It's called a spousal surcharge. The annual cost of it is $720.00 which is prorated based on the pay cycle of the employee. It is based on the honor system and not all employees who's spouses have other coverage volunteer this information. This surcharge is only for those who have other primary insurance - if our insurance is secondary and not the primary coverage then the surcharge does not apply.

morrisg · March 2007

We have a provision, not exactly like this, but the end result is the same. We offer employees $100 per month additional "provisional compensation” in their pay if they are welling to be removed from our medical plan and placed on their spouse’s plan. True enough, it's shifting health care cost, but that's part of the competitive challenge of health care management.

Riva · March 2007

We also have a similar plan that's called a waiver credit. This is for employees who opt out of our medical plan. Employees get a annual credit of $720 which is paid to the employee throughout the year based on their pay cycle. This works out well for the majority of our military veterans or for those who opt to go onto their spouses medical plan.

Susan in La · March 2007

The company my husband works for has a surcharge if an employee's spouse has insurance and doesn't take it. They automatically charge the extra even if their employee doesn't have insurance. He has to go in during annual enrollment and enter something in the computer to get the surcharge off his check even though HE is on MY insurance not his company's. It doesn't make for happy employees and I think they would improve morale if they stopped it.

Insurance Premiums

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