Question
What is the name of your state? - Iowa
I work for a school district, and was just informed that in 2 years they want to make it MANDATORY that I use their insurance.
I currently purchase my private health insurance that costs around $125.00 a month.
To get the same coverage at work I would have to shell out around $460.00 a month, which is CRAZY!
Can an employer force you to take their insurance?
~M
Answer
GREAT BIG FAT CAVEAT: 100% of my experience is in the private sector. I have NO experience in the public sector and the laws are sometimes different.
That being said, my understanding is that if the employer is paying 100% of the premium, they can require you to take the insurance. If you are paying a portion of the premium, you cannot.
Keep in mind that many times when an employer says taking their insurance is mandatory, there is an exception for those who can provide proof of other coverage. They will probably not tell you about this exception unless you ask them specifically. (No, they are not required to.) Many people have their insurance through their spouses; even when the insurance policy mandates that the employer cover 100% of the employee population (which sometimes happens) a "spousal waiver" will be accepted.
Answer
I work for a school district, and was just informed that in 2 years they want to make it MANDATORY that I use their insurance. I find that really odd for two reasons:
1. Most employers are delighted when an employee opts out of their insurance coverage because it means that another employer is paying their medical bills and the impact of the claims is being experienced by someone else. The only way what you are saying would appear to make sense is if the school district were experiencing "adverse selection" - that is for some reason most of the healthy employees have opted out of the district's coverage and the school district is left insuring a bunch of sickly employees and dependents. Consequently their "risk pool" is in poor shape and premiums are escallating much more rapidly than if they had a better mix of insureds (the healthy and the unhealthly.) But that doesn't make a whole lot of sense either because at least in my neck of the woods, the school districts offer the richest insurance plans around with very little expense shared by the employees. Unless of course the employees' share of the premiums is quite high.
2. This isn't going to take place for two years? If the teachers are in a teacher's union it's possible that there are some preliminary contract renewal discussions taking place but still it's unusual to plan benefit-related changes that far in advance given the pace at which changes are happening in the group health market.
Did you hear this from a reliable source (such as school adminstration) or is this just a rumor?
Answer
Good catch, Beth. I should have picked that up as well.