Is it common not to be eligible for employer's health insurance benefits for 90 days?

Plan Benefits
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I am applying to new jobs, and recently received an offer from a company I want to work for, but my eligibility for their healthcare benefits wouldn’t start until after 90 days of employment, and that is a logistical nightmare for me, given that it means I couldn’t enroll until two weeks after the new year.

While I’m sure this is not unheard of, I have never encountered it myself; everywhere I’ve worked has had benefits eligibility start on the 1st of the month after the date of hire, and what I want to know is whether it’s worth my time to decline their offer and look elsewhere for somewhere with sooner benefits eligibility, or if 90 days is common enough (at least in the healthcare field) that it would be a waste of my time to apply elsewhere (i.e. I would just end up in this situation again). I don’t want to go through the headache of enrollment two months in a row, and I also want to make sure I’m not being taking advantage of (I’ve never worked in healthcare before, so I don’t know how their benefits stack up against their competitors).

I confirmed with them that they have no ability to negotiate an earlier eligibility time.

Thanks in advance for your insight!

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It’s not uncommon. 90 days is probation probably too for the actual job.

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Pretty common. 1/3 of new hires won’t make it to 90 days. So saves alot of wasted HR resources

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Most companies have a standard probation period when you start.

During this time, you usually don’t earn any benefits.

This approach is easier to manage and saves money because it reduces the number of people who use costly medical care right away and then leave or get fired within 90 days.

While almost all jobs in the USA are at-will, it’s harder to fire someone after the probation period. You generally have to document issues and follow specific procedures.

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I work in healthcare ( for a large hospital corporation) and we have a 90 day probationary period but our health insurance is active on day one. So it is possible

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It’s pretty standard. They want to make sure you make it through your probationary period before they go through the enrollment process.