If the employer fails to pay the employee's medical insurance in a timely manner and the employee pays the medical insurance on their own as a flexible employee, can they recover it from the employer? Recently, the People's Court of Ninghua County, Fujian Province, concluded a property damage compensation dispute and ruled that a company should compensate employees for a loss of 14150.3 yuan in basic medical insurance premiums advanced by them.

Fan joined a company in Ninghua in May 1997 and both parties signed a written labor contract. Starting from July 1999, a certain company started paying employee basic pension insurance for Fan, and starting from January 2005, it started paying employee basic medical insurance for Fan. Fan resigned in October 2008. In September 2025, Fan was informed of unpaid basic medical insurance premiums for relevant employees while handling retirement. In order to smoothly handle retirement, Fan paid 74 months of basic medical insurance premiums for employees. Later, Fan demanded that a certain company compensate him for the basic medical insurance premiums he had advanced for the company for a total of 66 months from July 1999 to December 2004. Both parties failed to reach an agreement, and Fan filed a lawsuit in court.

After trial, the court found that the "Interim Provisions on the Management of Basic Medical Insurance for Urban Employees in Ninghua County" came into effect on July 1, 2001. Prior to June 30, 2001, a certain company had no conditions or obligations to handle basic medical insurance for employees, including Fan. According to the relevant provisions of the "Notice on Adjusting the Policies Related to Basic Medical Insurance Payment by Sanming Medical Security Bureau and Sanming Finance Bureau", from July 1999 to June 30, 2001, as an employee of a certain company, Fan's years of work before the implementation of the employee basic medical insurance system were considered as the years of employee medical insurance payment. Therefore, a certain company should bear the employee basic medical insurance premiums that were not paid for Fan for a total of 42 months from July 1, 2001 to December 31, 2004, totaling 14150.3 yuan.

After the court's trial, it was found that the company had not paid the basic medical insurance premiums for Fan's employees for a full year, which constitutes infringement and should bear corresponding compensation liability. Fan's lawsuit request for compensation from a certain company for the 66 months of employee basic medical insurance premiums advanced by him after self paying for retirement procedures is partially supported, that is, the company should bear the 42 months of employee basic medical insurance premiums that were not paid for Fan from July 1, 2001 to December 31, 2004. In the end, the court ruled that a certain company should compensate Fan for the loss of 14150.3 yuan in basic medical insurance premiums advanced by the employee. After the judgment came into effect, a certain company paid compensation to Fan.

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