Health care discrimination

[Guest ssek]

My company has recently increased the employee contribution for Health Insurance and required enrollment prior to 12/1. After 12/1 they announced that they would compensate anyone who had previously enrolled in the company Health Insurance with a stipend of and would not pay out to employees who declined coverage due to inclusion on a spouses policy elsewhere. Could this be considered discrmininatory and are there any precedents?

[Mary C]

Sorry, only precedents I could think of support your company. Many employers who increase the employee cost share or are beginning employee cost sharing bump up the pay of those currently enrolled to cover the increased cost. Anyone enrolling or hired after that certain date does not get the increase. I've seen a lot of situations handled this way and don't believe its discriminatory.

[Guest qualified plan]

Why do it that way, instead of just having the new cost-share arrangement apply to newly hired employees alone?