Strange interview questions about health insurance

[jggg]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

Hi, This happened during what started out as a promising job interview. and I probably won't get the job because of my response, but I thought companies refusing to hire people who needed health insurance was a dead issue since healthcare reform...?

The job interviewer asked me if I needed health insurance. I replied that if I was hired, I would of course have to take the employer's insurance, as I am on a healthcare subsidy throught the marketplace, and would lose that if I got the job at the salary level they are offering and I am expecting. He told me that their insurance premiums are "very very very expensive", "almost 600.00 a month just for individual coverage and going up all the time". I replied that that sounded about right for any comprehensive insurance plan, as I had already researched the costs of plans on the marketplace if paid without subsidies and have seen plans that cost over 1k a month. I did not bother asking what the employer's contribution towards the premium was, as I just didn't want to go into this discussion anymore, and wanted to focus on the job itself and the possibility of employment.

However I am asking here for some feedback / thoughts as to where this guy was going with this. He sounded exactly like he was trying to discourage me from wanting to take advantage of their health insurance plan and really wanted to hire someone who didn't need healthcare insurance from their job, and as I stated in the beginning here, I thought that was no longer an issue?

 

[cbg]

That sounds very much like someone who is trying to do an end run around either the ACA or the ADA or both. If you get and take the job, I'd be very wary of how management manages things.

BTW I will acknowledge up front that my employer pays a higher percentage than most (and much, much higher than the minimum required by law) and also that I am in an expensive part of the country for both health care and health insurance. But no one at my employer pays more than $520 a month even for family coverage. $600 for individual sends up red flags all over the place.

 

[commentator]

Yes, it really does sound like this person was trying to discourage or screen out people who was going to use health insurance from the company. Very unprofessional. He probably doesn't want to pay you a salary, either, thinks that in the right kind of world, someone should be willing to work for them for free. Be glad your potential employer revealed himself for the type he is, and that you have missed working for one of the jerks.

 

[jggg]

Thanks for the feedback, confirming what I suspected. It's a shame because it's one of the very few actual employment opportunities I have had, the rest being the usual "we want you to work for us as an employee, but we want to pay you as an independent contractor".

 

[ecmst12]

That's not legal either.