Delta Air Lines is effectively punishing their employees with an increase in their monthly health insurance premiums if they refuse to get the COVID vaccine:
CNBC – Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian notified employees Wednesday that they will face $200 monthly increases on their health insurance premiums starting Nov. 1 if they aren’t vaccinated against Covid-19, citing steep costs to cover employees who are hospitalized with the virus.
Unvaccinated employees will face other restrictions, including indoor masking effective immediately and weekly Covid-19 tests starting Sept. 12 the Atlanta-based airline said in announcing new Covid policies for employees.
The measures are the latest attempt by a U.S. corporation to drive up Covid vaccination rates. Delta stopped short of an outright mandate like rival United Airlines established earlier this month. The airline, which self insures its employees, stands out in its plans to raise premiums for unvaccinated workers to cover the higher costs of insuring employees who get Covid.
“The average hospital stay for COVID-19 has cost Delta $40,000 per person,” Bastian said in an employee memo. “This surcharge will be necessary to address the financial risk the decision to not vaccinate is creating for our company. In recent weeks since the rise of the B.1.617.2 variant, all Delta employees who have been hospitalized with COVID were not fully vaccinated.”
Delta is self-insured and United Healthcare administers the airline’s health insurance plans. The change in approach was Delta’s initiative.
Delta also said starting Sept. 30, “in compliance with state and local laws, COVID pay protection will only be provided to fully vaccinated individuals who are experiencing a breakthrough infection.” Unvaccinated employees who contract Covid, without exemptions, will have to use their sick days after that.
CEO Bastian said about 75% of Delta’s roughly 75,000 employees are already vaccinated and that “aggressiveness of the [delta] variant means we need to get many more of our people vaccinated, and as close to 100 percent as possible.”
Delta earlier this year started requiring new employees to be vaccinated against Covid.
Delta suggests this isn’t an outright mandate, but it really is because they are imposing consequences on employees if they refuse to get vaccinated. Not only will remaining unvaccinated cost their employees hundreds of dollars out of pocket every month, but they are forced to wear masks and won’t get the same COVID pay protection as other employees if they get infected.
This is an outright mandate, only the consequences are different. You can keep your job but you’re going pay through the nose. This is, unfortunately, the world we live in now. I’d say based on this, before you know it, they’ll probably be charging unvaccinated passengers more money to fly as well.