Group Health Insurance

Is a business required to provide health insurance to employees?

No. While it is common to provide health insurance as part of employee benefit packages for workers, the law generally does not require a business to do so. However, in the area of health insurance that situation is changing. Specifically, the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) will take effect January 1, 1998, and one of the main features of the Act guarantees the continued availability of health insurance, regardless of medical condition, for those already with coverage through employment or otherwise. For this reason, and others relating to court cases and state laws, while there may be no initial obligation to offer health insurance, once health insurance is in place for an employed person it will generally remain available, and this is especially so even now in employment situations governed by collective bargaining agreements.

If an employee loses health insurance coverage as a result of job loss, the employee can often qualify for individual coverage under extension of benefits provisions in the policy or plan or through Federal law mandated "COBRA" extended coverage (which is limited to 18 months normally, or 29 months if the individual is disabled, or 36 months if you are a spouse or dependent of a deceased insured or are divorced from an insured). Employed persons with questions in this area can contact their union or association representative or their company's benefits office.

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