Not only are healthcare employees being coerced into getting vaccinated, there is now increasing pressure for their unvaccinated spouses or domestic partners to get the shot.
Starting next year, Louisiana’s largest health system is going to start fining employees hundreds of dollars a month if they are married to an unvaccinated person.
CEO of Ochsner Health, Warner Thomas, told NOLA: “The reality is the cost of treating covid-19, particularly for patients requiring intensive inpatient care, is expensive, and we spent more than $9 million on COVID care for those who are covered on our health plans over the last year”
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Critics are slamming the move as “madness”
Fox News reports: Ochsner Health will start charging employees $200 per month, or $100 per pay period, if their spouse or partner is unvaccinated. The “spousal COVID vaccine fee” will begin in 2022, and Thomas said it is not a mandate, saying non-employed spouses and domestic partners can select a health plan outside the Ochsner’s offerings.
“This is not a mandate as non-employed spouses and domestic partners can choose to select a health plan outside of Ochsner Health offerings,” he told NOLA.
The fee only applies to domestic partners or spouses, not other dependents such as children, who are covered by the employee’s health insurance.
The announcement was met with condemnation by some on social media, including the Young Americans for Liberty, a libertarian student activism organization.
“This is a taste of what’s coming. There is no end to the madness. Brace,” YAL’s official Twitter account posted Friday.
