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Can my employer require that I join the company's health plan as a condition
of my employment?
If your employer pays part of or your entire health insurance premium, it
can require you to participate in the health plan. There is no law that
prohibits an employer from doing so.
This requirement may seem unfair, but consider other conditions employers
routinely dictate to their employees, including job-related travel, adherence
to dress codes, and participation in employer-sponsored workshops or classes.
Employers may demand employee participation in the company's health plan
because in some states the insurer can impose "minimum participation"
requirements. The insurer may stipulate, for example, that 85 percent of
the company's employees must belong to the health plan in order for the
insurer to cover the group. This is to make certain that the plan participants
represent a mix of healthy and unhealthy employees.
If only the "sick" employees who needed to take advantage of the
covered benefits joined the plan, the high number of resulting claims would
cause the cost of the plan to soar and threaten it with financial collapse,
a phenomenon known as "adverse selection."
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