The first $50,000 of group term life insurance is not taxable, so the tax penalty here should be reduced by about 10% [1].

Second, either Google is getting shafted on their premiums (they may be) and over paying by more than 44% ($200/$450 from the article), or on average this is a net benefit to employees over the possibility of opting out. Consider employees with health problems that could never get term insurance on their own. The real story might just be that Google should find a better priced term life provider.

[1] https://www.irs.gov/government-entities/federal-state-local-...