Employer Health Premium Contributions

[Guest WYT]

A company located in Brooklyn, NY has between 15-25 employees. They want to have two classes where the first class would have all health insurance premiums paid for by the company and the second class would have the employees pay 100% of the health premiums. (Alternatively, the company may consider paying a small percent of the 2nd class' premium, e.g. 10%).

Are there any concerns with this from a regulatory standpoint?

[mroberts]

As long as they are classes, no. If the employer was making a case by case decision, then yes. One problem I do see with this, however, is whether the carrier will allow the plan to be offered like this. Most carriers have participation requirements and when a medical plan is offered to employees at 100% of the cost, the only people that sign up are the sick employees.