If my neighbor is behind on his electric bill and is about to have his power turned off, I can pay his bill for him if I so choose. If I want to plunk down some tuition money for my son-in-law's account at the seminary, the sem thinks that's just dandy. I don't think our credit card company cares at all who pays my monthly bill, just so long as it gets paid.
Our health insurance is not like that. The premiums must be paid by the employer, on a check that has the employer's name and address on it. If the employer is behind on payments, no one else can "help out" and pay the bill. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind that. The health insurance people tried to explain it to me; it's something about the premiums being the responsibility of the employer, and so they cannot accept funds from the employee or from other entities. However, that really leaves an employee in a humongous pickle if, for some reason, the church treasurer cannot or will not pay the premium. No one else is allowed to step in with assistance. I cannot understand, though, why it would matter to the insurer where the premiums arrived from.
Friday, November 02, 2007
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Could it have something to do with it being an employer sponsored health plan and not available for private insurance? When we had private insurance, the companies only offered certain plans. If you were insured with the same insurance company through an employer you were offered different plans, and they were usually much better. The more people insured through a specific employer the less the insurance premiums cost. If you were to pay the premiums yourself than it wouldn’t be employer sponsored anymore. Could you give the money you were going to send to the insurance company to the treasurer and have him write a check in that same amount to cover the premiums?
ReplyDeleteThis is great info to know.
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