Universal Orlando drops health-care for part-time employees

Leah Zanolla | Posted: Feb 23, 2013 | Updated: Oct 19, 2014 - 9:25:27 AM

Universal Orlando is dropping health care coverage for their part-time employees beginning in 2014. The new policy is due to a change in federal health care laws that would restrict annual limits on insurance payouts. Universal offered a plan like this to their part-time staff, which also guaranteed the employees lower premiums. Their current plan costs employees $18 per week and has a maximum payout for services. For example, annual hospital coverage stops at $5,000. There are about 500 part-time employees that will be affected by the change.

Universal spokesman Tom Schroder said, "We care about our team members and we want them to have the best, most-affordable medical benefits we can provide. This particular issue affects about 3 percent of our 17,000 team members, and we're going to continue to work toward a solution."

With the new changes in the law, anyone who doesn't receive insurance from their employers is still required to purchase it, but they may qualify for financial help to pay for it if needed.