can you be terminated with terminal illness?

[marylynn]

What is the name of your state? new jersey
my dad was diagnosed with cancer in december. his employer paid him full salary with benefits for 4 months, then they laid him off, cancelling benefits except for medical insurance. they agreed to pay him "salary" of $400 and keep him on medical benefits for $400. (net of $0 ) he died in may, the first month after being laid off. my question is: can they lay him off cancelling life insurance benefits knowing he is terminal? with all his medical bills coming in, that life insurance policy sure would be helpful.

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

my question is: can they lay him off cancelling life insurance benefits knowing he is terminal? with all his medical bills coming in, that life insurance policy sure would be helpful.

My response:

Of course they can. He's fortunate to have had an employer keep him on "salary" to maintain medical insurance. Most employers would have terminated him, and left him swinging in the wind.

Where did you come up with the thought that an employer is a part of the Welfare System? They aren't.

Employers need "producing" employees to make money, to stay afloat. Your father wasn't "producing".

Only his Estate is liable for the medical bills - - no one, and nothing else, is liable for those bills. Unless his Estate has money, then the bills don't get paid. It's just that simple.

IAAL

 

[oob-a-keep]

I too, have also wondered about this type of situation. It's a sad story indeed. I had just read a thread in the 'Child Support' section, was basically about some man w/ out insurance, who'd been diagnosed with having terminal cancer, ..said his prognosis was pretty ugly. It's already bad enuff as it is (..considering that the condition is indeed factual and verifiable), but yet the DA thats representing his local CS agency demands him to provide the courts w/ documentation from his cancer doctor stating, "What is it about his cancer that makes him unable to work or be gainfully employed?"

Usually when a person is diagnosed with a terminal illness, ...about the last thing that their doctor is going to tell them is that they can't do something. I mean most doctors don't wanna tell a guy that's in a wheelchair that he should not walk, that would be sending a negative message, shooting down wishfull hopes. How many doctors are gonna tell a dying man that he'll be unable to work, or that it's highly unlikely that he'll be able to find work and be gainfully employed. Furthermore, how many employers will hire someone that is terminally ill? Even if the prognosis is good, ..an employer doesn't want to employ someone who cannot be dependable to show for work evey day, ..terminally ill means there will probably be many spur of the moment doctors visits, ..and too many unforseen futuristic problems that they don't want to deal with.

Fact is, that most physicians will tell you not to dwell on the thought of being ill, or potentially dying, ...but will tell you to just go on with your life, "as usual".

..just my 2 cents worth.
oob-a-keep