Go Delta!

[MoonRiver]

?1630200761

[lark]

1. Fucking A, it's about time!

Yay!!!!

More of this exact same thing by other businesses, please!

[yellowdogintexas]

10. Large plans have been upcharging premiums for smokers for years.

I know Humana has been doing it since 2008 (if not before) because I worked for them, and our benefits plan did add to premium cost for smokers.

[Lonestarblue]

2. Good start.

Now we need business to require vaccination and vaccine cards that can’t easily be forged.

[Ocelot II]

3. Delta self-insures its health insurance for employees; not sure

whether the ACA would allow it for premiums charged by insurance companies.

[yellowdogintexas]

21. Large group plans are negotiated every year.

Last edited Sun Aug 29, 2021, 01:50 PM - Edit history (1)

The employer will usually take several bids and often offer more than one plan.

Self insured plans set a fixed annual amount that the plan will pay out for each covered person,then if that cap is exceeded there is a large group catastrophic plan which picks up the slack.

I would also assume that it might be doubtful that the ACA would allow it for individual and small group plans. A small group might be able to do it; I think that if there are fewer than 50 (maybe 100) plan members, the rules may be different. They certainly were when I was a claims examiner for a company which specialized in small group and individual plans. That insurance company got away with all sorts of stuff because the groups were under the threshold .This was back in the late 1980s Premiums were low but so were the benefits and the plans were really complicated to process. (the agents were in the same category as used car salesmen)

Out of all the plans I have worked on, the best one was Part B Medicare.This is why I am a huge proponent of Medicare as an option for anyone who wants it. Medicare was actually supposed to eventually cover everyone. That went down the tubes after LBJ was no longer President.

Large group plans have been raising premiums for smokers for years and they must adhere to ACA rules so raising premiums for non-vaccinated could be allowable. The carriers certainly will not object to the extra income.

When you work in medical insurance for 40+ years, you pick up a lot of information

[yellowdogintexas]

26. Delta most likely pays atheir insurance company - they have thousands of employees

Employer pays either 2/3 or 3/4( I can't remember which) of the premium and employee pays the rest. These are some whopping big premiums too; the part the employer pays is not taxable to the employee, because the employer can deduct it from their taxes. Think about it: if your premiums are $300 per month, the company's part is $600.

A really large company isn't going to administer their own claims; they will depend on the carrier to do that. They would have to have their own insurance department for
employee claims if they didn't. I have worked for some companies with 40,000 or more
employees, and our doctors sent all our claims to the carrier.

[Ocelot II]

27. United Health administers the claims but Delta pays them itself.

I know whereof I speak; I used to work there and still have my Medicare supplement through their insurance trust, also administered by United Health. The premiums were quite reasonable at the time; the $200 surcharge for not being vaccinated would have been more than I paid for all the coverage I had.

[Scrivener7]

4. NO, I DON'T think other companies should do the same!!! I think Delta should REQUIRE VACCINATIONS!

I'm not getting on an airplane with an unvaxxed flight attendant, and them paying $200 a month isn't making me more likely to. After they pay their $200, they can still kill me. What is this nonsense?

[mucifer]

5. I don't think many people can afford that

[Scrivener7]

6. So what? Does it ensure that I won't be locked up in an enclosed space with Delta Delta?

Not even close.

[seleff]

11. Also do not qualify for paid sick leave

As I understand it also disqualifies them from paid sick leave for COVID. My daughter is in a school of Public Health and specializes in behavioral aspects of PH. She thinks Deltas policy is better than United's mandate as it communicates the burden on society that the unvaccinated carry.

[radical noodle]

14. At this point

even the vaccinated can kill you because they can still get covid and transmit it to you. If you are vaccinated, however, the likelihood that you will die is much less.

The unvaccinated screwed us all a long time ago, mostly because a few idiots didn't want Biden to succeed and spread lies.

[TalenaGor]

17. unfortunately requiring vaccinations is still a slippery slope legally for employers

I'm in human resources in the biopharmaceutical research industry... Even we have not found a way to legally require vaccinations yet and therefore we are still working from home....

I'm hoping that there will be some way we can get this done at some point but if it might require amending the ADA and other laws that protect all of us..

I do agree with what Delta is doing, these people are putting the entire group health plan at risk jacking up their experience rating... Which jacks up the cost and or quality of benefits for everyone for years to come... I wish more employers did this for smokers as well...

[GB_RN]

18. Employers Have Been Able To Require Vaccinations For Ages...

Those vaccines were just FDA approved. Now that the Pfizer vaccine is FDA approved, they can now require it and have court backing. For those that required it before, they had to rely on the cover of public health and safety laws (although those usually held up) and were mostly in the public facing sectors, like hospitals. Although, some colleges, public and private were requiring proof of vaccination before the Fall semester started (Here in NC, Duke University requires vaccinations, period, and the UNC system says if students aren't vaccinated, they have to submit to weekly surveillance testing).

Hospitals have long required staff to be vaccinated for the flu every year (exemptions for religious or medical reasons granted here in NC) by a deadline in September/October, or be fired. The same rule is being applied now, with the Pfizer vaccine, since it's FDA approved. Hospitals aren't taking chances on staff getting infected and causing an outbreak within the hospital that the hospital would then be legally liable for.

Other business would be smart to do the same thing (either using Delta Airline's backdoor coercion model or just saying "Get it or get out." ). If contact tracing of cases were to show that an outbreak came from a store's employee(s), that could be really bad for business. In more ways than one.

[yellowdogintexas]

22. you just reminded me that I had to be vaccinated for flu, HepB , & whooping cough

when I went to work at a local childrens hospital. There was one other but I can't remember what it was. It was a fairly new vaccine and my daughter had to have it per state requirement. We were also tested for measles and rubella antibodies. (I had every childhood disease since none of those vaccines existed when I was a kid)

My next job was with the HMO/PPO plan for a major local general hospital and flu shots were required (they were free).

Other companies offered them for $5 copay but they were not required. It was strongly recommended that we get them.

I agree that Pfizer's FDA approval may prompt more companies to mandate employees get the vax.

Especially employers with thousands of employees.

[Ocelot II]

19. Delta self-insures, so they aren't putting their coverage at risk -

it's just costing them a lot more. Each employee who is hospitalized with covid costs the insurance fund an average of $50K, and that's not even counting staffing problems for a business that so completely relies on its staff to keep its operations going. If even one pilot or flight attendant gets covid they have to be taken off the flight, the flight might be delayed or canceled and other crew members probably have to be quarantined. I think they should require vaccinations for flight crews, and I understand the vast majority of them are vaxxed, but maybe the insurance surcharge and the loss of sick days might be enough incentive for the rest of them.

[yellowdogintexas]

23. Flight crews probably got vaxxed on their own once they could!

Just think of all the non vaxed people in that close confinement (along with the non-maskers)

[multigraincracker]

7. As a Great DUer once said....

Off to the Greatest Page.

[IronLionZion]

8. I thought you were cheering on the Delta variant when I clicked on this thread

[MoonRiver]

9. Lol, I didn't think about that!

I probably would have thought the same thing!

[NH Ethylene]

13. Me too! Hahaha! n/t

[yellowdogintexas]

24. LOL make that 3 !!! nt

[lindysalsagal]

15. in 6 months, this will be universal. All insurance works in lockstep, that's why it works.

[cinematicdiversions]

20. Delta self insures. Otherwise this would be illegal Under Ada. Nt

[Mr.Bill]

29. I think you mean ACA, or Affordable Care Act.

Also known as Obamacare. The only thing the ACA allows a surcharge for is smokers. Delta ia able to do this because they self-insure, as do a number of large companies. Traditional insurance companies can't do this. And good luck changing the law in the present political climate. One can only imagine the amendments republicans would want to add to that bill before they would vote for it.

[yellowdogintexas]

25. Certainly all big companies with lots of employees -

Many of them already apply the increased premiums for smokers.
I keep having this dim memory that one of my employers did something related to obesity. However, that company also had free exercise areas and would pick up fees for weight loss programs. I think.

This could also be a fantasy LOL

[wryter2000]

16. I'd rather

They require vaccination

[southerncrone]

28. Excellent move Delta. But it should be much more, say $500 per month.