It is caused by new trend of employers paying a rebate to employees that opt out of health care coverage.>>>>>>>>
When and where did this start? If my employer would pay me the amount they pay for my insurance, I would almost certainly refuse coverage and my wife and I would pay our own bills, as it is it takes most of the year to meet the deductible anyway.
Federal benefit rules requires that if one employee in a class is offered insurance, every employee in the class must be offered.
My company pays 100% of the premium for the employee and I pay 100% of the premium for family coverage.
Before this program began the employee that opted out of employee coverage got nothing. It makes the cost of the benefit equal for all employees.