This is very strange, it's not even remotely rare to decline employer coverage - probably half my team either has their spouse on our company coverage, or no company coverage since they are covered by their spouse.

It's not rare. About 1/3 of my team has declined coverage now. But when were six people, and the minimum for BCBS to cover us was six people, we asked everyone to commit to the coverage so we could do it.

In my jurisdiction this practice (forced insurance) would almost certainly be illegal if any unauthorized payroll deduction were included.