Question
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Arizona
My spouse has okay health insurance -however his rates recently went up. He has worked with the company for four years. However, his co-worker who has worked at the company for eight years has a different and better health insurance plan - his rates did not go up recently. His co-worker does not have a higher position than him - he has just worked at the company longer. They both are full time employees. Is this favoritism or senoirity? Is this legal?
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Often there is open enrolement for plans once a year, maybe they selected different plans or have different qualifiers?
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I know that my husband, selected the best plan he was offered. So it seems they are offerend different plans, which does not seem right to me. I am not sure what you mean by qualifiers though? Thank you for posting a reply.
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It is not impossible that the better (and no doubt more expensive) plan was grandfathered and is now available only to employees who have been there x amount of time or longer, and yes, that would be legal. I can also think of several other possible and legal reasons why different plans might be available to different employees. Which, if any, of these possibilities is the correct ones cannot be determined with the information we have.
The other employee's rates do not have to go up just because your husband's did. Not all plans offered by a company necessarily renew at the same time; rates will only go up at renewal. Also, even if they renew at the same time, the employer will not necessarily raise the rates of one plan if the cost to the employer stayed the same or only increased marginally.
The bottom line is that while we can't possibly know the actual reason, there are plenty of legal ways it could have happened.
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Thank you so much for your response. I just wanted to make sure my husband was not being cheated. But, if it is legal - than I guess there is not much I can do about it. Thank you so much!