Companies can charge different health care rates to fight a disease. | Pixabay
Companies can charge different health care rates to fight a disease. | Pixabay
Delta Air Lines will increase its employees' health insurance for not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
This move ended up causing a rise in vaccination rates among its employees.
“As (coronavirus) cases surged over the summer, Delta Air Lines CEO took action: Unvaccinated workers would have to pay an extra $200 a month for their health insurance, starting Nov. 1 no vaccine mandate but each employee who was hospitalized with (coronavirus) had cost Delta $50,000,” Twitter user "Ted the brain surgeon" wrote on Twitter.
The airline isn’t the only company that is following similar footsteps to getting its employees vaccinated from the coronavirus.
Employers such as Delta Air Lines Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are raising health care premiums for their unvaccinated employees under a program called “wellness program,” NPR reported.
"We really feel that this approach is working," Alen Brcic, Mercyhealth's vice president of people and culture, said to NPR. "Truly, our goal is to encourage everyone to get vaccinated, but also ensure that people have the choice."
Federal law allows employers to charge different rates for health insurance to different employees if they are done through a program that aims to prevent disease.
In September, between 13% and 20% of companies had considered raising health insurance premiums for their unvaccinated workers, according to a survey from the Society for Human Resource Management.
In the programs, employees are also allowed to offer rewards and penalties for meeting certain standards.
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