4 ms·

Years ago, I worked at a big aerospace company (that no longer exists). I was hiring a small team of software engineers. I was flat out told not to hire anyone

Years ago, I worked at a big aerospace company (that no longer exists). I was hiring a small team of software engineers. I was flat out told not to hire anyone who was, or wanted to be, pregnant. Why? Health care cost. We were self-insured, and a baby born with severe health problems could bankrupt our plan.

cafard 7y ago
Odds are you had some male software engineers. Did management forbid you to hire any that were married, cohabiting, or considering the possibility? Or did the big aerospace company not insure families?
- mieseratte 7y ago
  I've been asked in interviews about my familial status, even had one CTO flat-out tell me he wanted to know because of insurance costs.
  - harryh 7y ago
    For the record, asking such questions in a job interview is illegal. Though it definitely still happens. Probably a lot.
hn_throwaway_99 7y ago
If a bad outcome of a single employee can "bankrupt your plan", I think the company should stop with the euphemism of they are "self-insured" and admit to the reality that they have no insurance. The entire purpose of insurance is to spread risk to a level that it becomes acceptable if there is 1 negative outcome, which obviously wasn't the case here. As an aside, just another example of how our f'd up healthcare system causes all these additional negative follow on effects.
- sjg007 7y ago
  The CEO of AOL referred to million dollar babies once as a reason to cut benefits.
- sokoloff 7y ago
  It also seems unlikely that even a multi-million dollar birth with complications would bankrupt the plan of a "big aerospace company", except for fairly small values of big.
- adrianmonk 7y ago
  While you're not wrong, it's also possible that it wouldn't bankrupt the plan but would simply cost more, cutting into potential profit. It could just be a fear tactic to reduce expenses.
harryh 7y ago
This story makes no sense: - How could a single baby born with health problems bankrupt a big aerospace company? - A man is just as likely to have a child with severe health problems as a woman even though he'll never be the pregnant one.
- mieseratte 7y ago
  > - How could a single baby born with health problems bankrupt a big aerospace company? Lots of companies have self-funded groups, but join onto an insurance group for negotiating power. For instance, I have a plan like this and our partner-company is Cigna so I carry around a Cigna insurance card with the $FIRM plan. Looking at the paperwork, the most expensive plan is $67 per week, with an $8,500 max out- of-pocket. $FIRM has (rounding up slightly) 500 employees. So let's say 500 employees x 67 dollars x 52 weeks = 1.742.000 dollars into the insurance pool per year, so two $1.000.00 pregnancies in a year would be devastating. If the pool was low, possibly bankrupting(?) - I'm not actually sure what the failure mode is here, if Cigna has some obligation at that point... guess I have an HR question tomorrow.
  - harryh 7y ago
    $67 per week is your personal out of pocket commitment. The firm is committing much more to the pool. And yes, Cigna very likely does have an obligation at some point. Most firms of your size negotiate a max per year expense for the firm and insure expenses beyond that point.
  - kaitai 7y ago
    Insurance companies have reinsurance, though -- they insure themselves against low-probability but high-stakes costs. Any insurance group that would be bankrupted by a single baby is just a clown college that would certainly be wiped out by a multiple myeloma or someone who needed an immune checkpoint inhibitor... or a couple adults who are on the new Hep C treatment ($84000 for three months!).

cafard 7y ago

Odds are you had some male software engineers. Did management forbid you to hire any that were married, cohabiting, or considering the possibility? Or did the big aerospace company not insure families?

mieseratte 7y ago
I've been asked in interviews about my familial status, even had one CTO flat-out tell me he wanted to know because of insurance costs.
- harryh 7y ago
  For the record, asking such questions in a job interview is illegal. Though it definitely still happens. Probably a lot.

hn_throwaway_99 7y ago

If a bad outcome of a single employee can "bankrupt your plan", I think the company should stop with the euphemism of they are "self-insured" and admit to the reality that they have no insurance. The entire purpose of insurance is to spread risk to a level that it becomes acceptable if there is 1 negative outcome, which obviously wasn't the case here. As an aside, just another example of how our f'd up healthcare system causes all these additional negative follow on effects.

sjg007 7y ago
The CEO of AOL referred to million dollar babies once as a reason to cut benefits.
sokoloff 7y ago
It also seems unlikely that even a multi-million dollar birth with complications would bankrupt the plan of a "big aerospace company", except for fairly small values of big.
adrianmonk 7y ago
While you're not wrong, it's also possible that it wouldn't bankrupt the plan but would simply cost more, cutting into potential profit. It could just be a fear tactic to reduce expenses.

harryh 7y ago

This story makes no sense: - How could a single baby born with health problems bankrupt a big aerospace company? - A man is just as likely to have a child with severe health problems as a woman even though he'll never be the pregnant one.

mieseratte 7y ago
> - How could a single baby born with health problems bankrupt a big aerospace company? Lots of companies have self-funded groups, but join onto an insurance group for negotiating power. For instance, I have a plan like this and our partner-company is Cigna so I carry around a Cigna insurance card with the $FIRM plan. Looking at the paperwork, the most expensive plan is $67 per week, with an $8,500 max out- of-pocket. $FIRM has (rounding up slightly) 500 employees. So let's say 500 employees x 67 dollars x 52 weeks = 1.742.000 dollars into the insurance pool per year, so two $1.000.00 pregnancies in a year would be devastating. If the pool was low, possibly bankrupting(?) - I'm not actually sure what the failure mode is here, if Cigna has some obligation at that point... guess I have an HR question tomorrow.
- harryh 7y ago
  $67 per week is your personal out of pocket commitment. The firm is committing much more to the pool. And yes, Cigna very likely does have an obligation at some point. Most firms of your size negotiate a max per year expense for the firm and insure expenses beyond that point.
- kaitai 7y ago
  Insurance companies have reinsurance, though -- they insure themselves against low-probability but high-stakes costs. Any insurance group that would be bankrupted by a single baby is just a clown college that would certainly be wiped out by a multiple myeloma or someone who needed an immune checkpoint inhibitor... or a couple adults who are on the new Hep C treatment ($84000 for three months!).