I just got a full-time job, and I’ve run into an issue. The only option for medical plans available are high-deductible plans, which cost about $80/month. The plans are 100% employee paid. In addition to the premium, I had to sign a paper stating that I would pay an extra $15 a month because I am a smoker. In lieu of paying $1,000/year for a benefit I will likely not use at all,(I don’t ever go to the doctor, so no insurance is no problem) I opted to make a larger contribution to my 401(K) and waived the health insurance. All of the papers I filled out had the option waive the insurance. Even the paperwork “check list” made by HR had the option to waive the coverage. When I turned it in today, I was told that it was against company policy to not take the benefit. This was never mentioned to me during my orientation and it doesn’t feel right. From what little I can find online, it appears that a company can make it mandatory to take the insurance offered.

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This entry was posted by cmonfils on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 at 8:10 pm and is filed under Health Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.