What is a Waiver of Insurance?  

When you are Benefits Eligible, Reliant will offer you insurance, and you are responsible for participating. This an offer that is regulated by governmental codes of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  When you accept insurance coverage through another person’s employment, you will be asked to “waive” your Reliant offer of insurance.  Reliant and its insurance providers must confirm that you are covered by allowable insurance. 

A waiver is a notice that we keep on file.  It indicates your reason for waiving employer-offered coverage to us and the insurance company.    

Are ACA-allowed waives are extended to International Missionaries?  

Reliant has additional requirements before you may waive our insurance for a family member’s plan who is not participating in the Reliant coverages.  

Namely, the Partner Organization must initiate and approve this waiver option.  We require this due to the fact that your AETNA insurance also covers essential insurance for living in an international setting, including foreign medical coverage, medical evacuation coverage, repatriation of remains, and others. These coverages go far beyond that which the Affordable Care Act requires. When encountering any of these special situations, the real cost per person ranges from $15,000 to more than $100,000. 

Additionally, while living overseas, most US plans will treat any medical needs as out-of-network. Typically out-of-network deductibles range from $10,000 to $20,000, and then covered expenses are covered at a fraction of the expense.  These realities make the expenses truly unaffordable and burdensome to the international worker. 

When someone actually encounters a need that is not covered, the entire ministry can be adversely affected in trying to cover for the need.  Therefore, the Partner Organization must initiate and approve waives from our insurance. Many of Reliant’s team's partnerships depend on those coverages and don’t have the resources to accommodate your hardship if something happens.  Reliant international workers may utilize ACA-allowed waivers only after their Supervisors and Partnerships have made arrangements previously with the International Program Team at Reliant. 

When ACA waives are allowed, the missionary should expect to be required to carry additional insurance as directed by the partner organization.

Why am I considered a "Waiver" when our family is covered by Reliant’s International Insurance?

When the primary policyholder of your insurance is your Reliant employed spouse, you are technically considered a "waive" as relates to your individual employee offer of coverage.   When Reliant employs you and your spouse, you can choose coverage as two individual employees or as a family unit.

We encourage you to identify what is most beneficial for your family as you select your plans.  When choosing one of the options that insures you as a family unit, one spouse carries the insurance, and the other spouse "waives" their employee's offer of insurance. 

Therefore, when a Reliant family has both spouses employed and chooses the "Family" or the "Employee + Spouse" levels of coverage, one spouse "waives" their offer of insurance and is covered by the other employed spouse's coverage.  This can seem counter-intuitive.  Please bear with us when we need to confirm your waiver, even though you are participating in Reliant's Insurance offering through your spouse. 

Reliant would prefer that the pay first spouse be the primary insured. 

Open Enrollment each year allows changes to the structure of your plan and can also be made at the time of any qualifying event like birth, marriage, loss of coverage, etc.