Subject: EEOC Rules Target Bias In Insuring the Disabled
Date: Published: 6/9/93 (35 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    EEOC Rules Target Bias
    In Insuring the Disabled

    WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
 adopted interim rules to ensure that employers don't discriminate
 against workers with AIDS and other disabilities in providing health
 insurance.
    The panel drew up the rules for its investigators to enforce
 portions of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.
    The rules put the onus on employers and insurers to justify any
 provisions of their health plans that discriminate against employees
 with disabilities.
    The EEOC said the rules are based on requirements of the 1990 law
 that:
    -- Disability-based insurance distinctions are permitted only if
 the employer-provided health insurance plan is bona fide and the
 distinctions aren't used to evade the law.
    -- Employees with disabilities must be given equal access to
 whatever health insurance the employer provides to nondisabled
 workers.
    -- Employers may not make employment decisions about any person
 based on concerns about the impact on the health plan of the
 disability of that person or of someone else with whom that person
 has a relationship.
    The rules will remain in effect until more comprehensive rules,
 subject to public comment, can be developed.

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