Employer Health Insurance cancellation?

[KM Managers]

What is the name of your state? CA


Our employer just annouced yesterday he may be cancelling all employee health benifits and as of Dec 1st we will no longer have dental coverage. What are the employee's rights? It seems wrong that he could just cancel the dental coverage with less than 2 weeks notice. As for the medical insurance we haven't heard of an exact date yet for the cancellation. Also to add to the situation we have 2 employees in their last trimester of pregnacy. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


TIA
KM Managers

 

[cbg]

Except in the state of Hawaii, no employer is required by law to offer health insurance at all, and no employer is any state is required to offer dental insurance. Unless you have a bona fide contract that guarantees these benefits, the employer is within his rights to cancel either or both.

 

[KM Managers]

Even though the law states that the employer doesn't have to offer the insurance, does the employer have the to right to cancel our exsisting insurance with little or no notice? Also still what happens to the pre-exsisting conditions like pregnancy?

 

[cbg]

Yes. The employer has a right to cancel the insurance. How much notice he is required to give depends on state law, but I don't know of any state that requires more than 30 days, and I think there are some states where they are not required to give any notice at all. I don't know what the required notice is in your state, or even if there is any required notice in your state.

Any employee who is married and whose spouse has access to coverage, should have the option of joining that plan as long as they do so within 30 days of the cancellation. If they are joining a group plan, pregnancy CANNOT be considered a pre-existing condition and MUST be covered by the new plan. (They will NOT be able to join the plan any old time they want - they should wait till they know IF the medical plan is being cancelled and if so, on what date; they can ONLY come onto a spousal plan at open enrollment OR within 30 days of losing their own coverage.) If they are not married and/or do not have access to spousal insurance, then I strongly suggest that they start looking for an individual plan NOW. P.S. If they are going to an individual plan, it MAY be that the new plan will consider the pregnancy pre-existing. However, not all plans use a pre-ex clause so they should be prepared to ask very specific questions of the new carrier and preferably get things in writing.

 

[KM Managers]

Ok I think I got it now. Thanks so much for the help