Health Insurance Benefit provided by my Company changed to a Lower Cover

hoffbunny

Hi
Hello to everyone, not posted before and im new to the site so forgive me if ive posted this in the wrong section.

When i joined my company they offered health insurance policies as a benefit when you have completed two years service. Over the last few years it has been with Aviva but this year they have withwdrwan it for new employees and changed the policy to another company.

Obviously a cost cutting exercise but it now means that the cover we have is substiantilly lower than we had before. The Aviva policy did not have a limit on thing like outpaitinet care or an excess whereas the new policy we have been changed to has a limit of £1000 per year outpatient care and a £100 excess. The company has said that they will cover the excess but can they really change the policy without giving us an option.

It now basically means that if we wanted to cancel the policy and take out our own one we wouldnt be covered for any preexisting conditions.

Does anyone know if they are able to do this. it doesnt seem fair that they can get away with this without at least notifying us and giving us the option of paying extra to have a better policy.

When we were told, the letter made it seem like they were doing us a favour as we would pay less tax on the new policy.

Any advice anyone can give me would be greatly aprreciated.

Thanks

hoffbunny

it is on our employment contracts but is doesnt state anything about cover level

alexjonsson

I would imagine that any well written employment contract would state that health insurance benefits can be removed or modified at any time.

Best check your own employment contract but I'd suggest that they are perfectly within their rights to change the policy.