CORONA Fired Workers Sue Blue Cross Blue Shield over Vaccine Mandate: 'We're Not Just Numbers'

[Macgyver]

Fired Workers Sue Blue Cross Blue Shield over Vaccine Mandate: 'We're Not Just Numbers'

Over 170 terminated insurance employees denied a religious exemption are taking legal action against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

www.breitbart.com

Fired Workers Sue Blue Cross Blue Shield over Vaccine Mandate: 'We're Not Just Numbers'
Amy Furr

3 - 4 minutes

Ashkan Forouzani / Unsplash
3:33


For many years, Alicia Kowalczyk viewed Blue Cross Blue Shield as her last job before she retired, and she loved working there.
However, when the company’s vaccine policy clashed with her beliefs, she had to make a choice, MLive.com reported Friday.
“I’m supposed to be a safety net for [my kids,]” she told the outlet. “I have to choose between my livelihood and the insurance and all of that or going through a medical procedure that I 100% don’t agree with.”
The federal vaccine mandate affecting businesses with 100 or more workers caused problems before it was enforced.
On January 13, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the rule for businesses but upheld the healthcare mandate.
Many Michigan business owners felt relieved they did not have to enforce the mandate, but others already moved forward with it, the MLive.com report continued:

Kowalczyk, who is of Native American descent of the Woodland Indians, said she chose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine because of her religious beliefs. She’s among the 250 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan employees who were terminated on January 5 for not complying with the company’s vaccination deadline.

Under the proposed federal mandate, the insurance company was considered a federal contractor and therefore did not offer a testing option. The company states 1,900 unvaccinated employees received a religious exemption or chose to get the vaccine after being informed of the policy in October.

Now, over 170 terminated insurance employees denied a religious exemption, such as Kowalczyk, have joined forces to take legal action against the company, and attorney Noah Hurwitz is representing them.
Hurwitz explained the lawsuit depended on the company challenging the sincerity of the workers’ beliefs. However, his clients were confident they could prove it.
In November, employees who filed a religious exemption request were interviewed to find out the depth of sincerity regarding their beliefs.
Kowalczyk described it as “an interrogation” with “absolutely no warm and fuzzies.”
The process of having his faith questioned was hard for Bill Agee, but failing to meet the criteria was even worse.
He is a former team leader for inventory at the company, and given his former years as a pastor, he felt shocked after the denial and asked to view the criteria.
The answer he received was apparently copied and pasted off the frequently asked questions page, he claimed.
Following the terminations, several unvaccinated workers created a group online to talk about what happened.
Agee noted it was hard to be among the minority because “we’re not just numbers.”
“This is not just 100 people,” Agee continued, adding, “This is 100 families in Michigan that are being affected by this, having had no pay three weeks before Christmas and being relieved of our job.”
Meanwhile, a plurality of Americans believes President Joe Biden went “too far” when trying to get citizens vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to a recent CBS News/YouGov survey.
“A plurality, 40 percent, said he went ‘too far,’ while 34 percent said he ‘handled it about right,’ and 26 percent said he did not go ‘far enough,'” Breitbart News reported January 17.

 

[Knoxville's Joker]

Whoopsie.

 

[Babs]

Really stupid move by BCBS. They do not have the ability to determine one's sincerely held beliefs.

 

[night driver]

One should remember that BC/BS is ACTUALLY a loosely held consortium of different companies. This is NOT a monolithic individual company, and some of the rules won't be the same, company to company.
For instance, BC/BS of Northeast Ohio has nothing to do with TOLCOL (BC/BS Toledo Columbus).

 

[Meemur]

True, ND, but some of them badly need an attitude adjustment. Haul their behinds into court and sue the pants off them. Some have some nasty, nasty administrators that should maybe even serve some jail time for racketeering and stock fraud.

 

[undead]

do these companies like paying out back wages!!!???

 

[Babs]

My step-mother was an executive at BCBS and worked there for 30 years, retiring with a huge pension.
She traveled all over the country attending meetings. She had no job. She literally did not have
anything to do. When she was in her office, she played games on her computer all day! This is
absolutely a true story. She got a promotion in the 1970s because another executive was trying to
pick her up, and they never gave her a job to do, and she never asked for one.

Can you imagine how much this has cost us over the years?? What if there were more people like her?

 

[night driver]

When I was there the stats on corp overhead was 5%. Meaning that 95% of the money that came IN to the company in premiums was paid out in payments.

And my boss was one of the folks who handled Claims and Premiums (as well as QUEST Peer Review USES of payment moneys).

But I was there for the latter third of the LRSP debacle, so things were VERY different then.