Your health insurance right depends on how big your employer is. It can happen when the employer cancels your health benefits without informing you. Is it right? Under the Affordable Care Act, large employers are obliged to provide health insurance to employees.
What if the employer cancels health benefits without informing?
If your employer is a small business, it has the freedom to cancel your health insurance. The minimum law is whether you are entitled to any advance warning.
ACA requirements
The ACA was implemented to reduce the number of uninsured Americans. One rule is that “applicable large employers” must provide group insurance to full-time employees.
Defining an ALE is complicated but the rule of thumb is that if companies have 50 full-time employees, they qualify. Removing your insurance away without saying you or not violates the law.
Small companies are not obligated to provide you insurance unless you are in a contract or union agreement.
If you work more than 30-hours per week on your workday, the ACA treats you full-time. If your average hour is less then the law does not require your employer to provide insurance.
Any coverage the company provides is free to cancel. If you are full-time, it may cut your hours until you qualify.
ERISA
One of the many federal laws covering workers’ benefits, the Employee Retirement Income Protection Act states that your employer must notify you of any major changes to the plan, such as deductions for benefits.
Surprisingly, some courts have said that canceling the plan directly is not a change, so the company does not have to notify anyone. Nevertheless, many companies and business organizations advise employees to be on the safe side of the law.
State law
Federal law isn’t the only game in town. Some benefits have added to the law to notify coverage and employees of any material changes to your benefits. Your state’s labor department or insurance commissioner’s department will be able to tell you the law.
If you lose coverage
If you find that your employer has closed your health insurance in secret, contact your boss or human resources and ask why. This could have been a valid reason for them but made a mistake in the notification process. Suppose your health benefits are covered by your unemployed husband, who is now back at work. Many companies will not cover a spouse who can take out insurance through their own employer.
If the company does not have a valid reason, you may have grounds for litigation. To sue someone under ERISA, you must first take administrative steps, such as filing a complaint with the Federal Labor Department. If you end the process without getting a trial, you can go to court.
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