Health Insurance

ERISAmaven

Does anyone have experience with requiring employees to enroll in a health insurance plan as a condition of employment unless they can proove they have other coverage? What are the pros and cons?

BKate

I haven't really run into this. Most of us are trying to keep insurance premiums down, so employees chosing not to enroll is often viewed as a good thing. I would guess that you can only mandate enrollment if the company pays the premiums. Wouldn't employees have to authorize a payroll deduction in writing if they were required to pay the premium? If that's the case, they could refuse coverage.

ERISAmaven

I think that the idea is two-fold:

1. To make sure everyone is covered so that they take care of minor problems before they become major, and

2. To aovaid adverse selection.

If enrollment is a condition of employment, doesn't it avoid the problem of an employee refusing to authorize withholding?