Resigning sooner than originally stated to make sure to get insurance coverage

T

themittenabides

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Jurisdiction
Michigan
Hello,

Summary:
My girlfriend decided to resign 3 days early in order to be able to enroll in health insurance for December. Since she is undergoing cancer treatments, she cannot afford to be without health insurance. But her boss is attempting to block her from doing so, thus preventing her from having insurance coverage for December. Is this illegal for him to do?

Details:
About 1 month ago (11/9) my girlfriend had to tell her boss that she was looking for a job and that she would probably be getting a new job within 2-4 weeks. Last Friday she got a job offer, and then Monday (11/28) turned in a resignation letter that said she was going to be done at the end of this week (12/2). Since she told him 3 weeks prior that she was looking, she figured a 1 week notice was sufficient instead of the typical 2 week notice.

In her email she asked to discuss health insurance with her boss to determine if the insurance would cover her for the next month, even after she was done. Her boss said that the insurance wouldn't cover her because the company is too small to fall under the COBRA rule (or whatever it's called). So she went to go apply to government Marketplace plans and realized that if she resigned on 12/2, the new insurance would not be able to cover her until Jan 1st, therefore resulting in her having to go get cancer treatment with no health insurance, which would cost her a ton of money. So she spent 6 hours trying to get a hold of her boss to discuss this, and possibly figure out if she could stay with the company for an extra month so that she would not lose coverage. But her boss ignored her, so she had to make a tough decision and decided to quit yesterday (11/29) instead, so that she could apply for insurance. Since the boss decided to ignore her, she basically had to choose between working for the company for 3 more days and going an entire month without insurance, or quitting early and getting insurance.

So she sent an amended resignation letter explaining her decision. The boss, still ignoring her, decided to fax over her original resignation letter to the insurance company, so that their official date of her quitting is 12/2. He then told her it was unacceptable for her to quit 3 days early for any reason. He did not even address the health insurance issue.

So basically it seems like he is intentionally trying to block her from getting health insurance for the month of December when he is well aware of her cancer treatments and the reason for having to resign 3 days early. This really seems illegal to me. Any advice for us?
 
Thanks, that should help ease her stress about this. So he's just being a jerk and can't really hurt her or prevent her from getting insurance. He also seems to be using language that would imply that if she doesn't do this one task for this one client, then they might sue the company, and the implication is that it would be her fault. But the task is so simple that any employee can go do it, so it just seems like he's throwing empty threats at her really.
 
The insurance company will want to know her last day worked. It doesn't matter what is in the resignation letter. She can call them direct and let them know her last day worked.
 
Thanks. That could explain why the boss is demanding that she do this simple task - even though she already quit - so that it would mess up the insurance. I don't know if he's acting maliciously or if he is just incredibly irresponsible, but either way it sounds like my gf is in the clear.
 
All of these are things your gf should have investigated before acting . It is not her employer's responsibility to back date things or jump through hoops or do anything to help an employee who departed with almost no notice. You may think that unprofessional, but it was not professional to quit with just one week's notice and then not to even stick it out for that week. They can't force her to stay, but they also don't have to put themselves out when she changed her mind.
 
Right, she should've researched this beforehand. And that probably would've prevented this whole nasty situation. The boss could've chosen to act differently and not gone out of his way to ignore her, attempt to prevent her from getting insurance, and then harass her after she quit. But all of that is already done, so my only concern is that he can't do any real legal damage or prevent her from getting insurance and it sounds like he can't, so that's good!
 
He can't force her to come to work. But meanwhile she can't force him to confirm that she stopped working earlier than her resignation letter stated. And I am by no means positive that her calling the insurance company and saying, Oh, by the way, even though I wrote December 2 in my resignation letter I really resigned as of November 30, is going to be sufficient for the company to cancel her insurance as of November 30 instead of December 2 unless he does.
 
No her phone call probably won't be enough, but it should at least prompt them to check with the employer to confirm her last day worked.
 
Yeah, it looks like the company insurance provider has to use whatever date the boss tells them. My gf did apply to the govt Marketplace with "special circumstances" or whatever, and made sure to send them the paper trail showing that she had actually quit 11/29.
 

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