Will Obamacare Result in Loss of Your Spousal Insurance Coverage?

Do you participate in your spouse's health insurance plan? Would you like to keep that plan? Some spouses are learning that will no longer be an option and employers are blaming the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

United Parcel Service (UPS) plans to drop coverage for 15,000 spouses of UPS employees who are eligible for coverage through their own employers.


According to Kaiser Health News, UPS indicated in a memo to employees that rising medical costs “combined with the costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, have made it increasingly difficult to continue providing the same level of health care benefits to our employees at an affordable cost.” 

NBC affiliate WVIR-TV reports the University of Virginia is also dropping coverage for working spouses due to higher costs associated with Obamacare.

"The University estimates the effects of the Affordable Care Act for this coming year alone are going to add $7 million to the cost of us implementing and operating our health plan," UVA spokesperson McGregor McCance told WVIR.

A Towers Watson employer survey indicates many other employers are likely to make similar moves. Survey results released earlier this year indicate 20 percent of respondents levy a penalty for spousal coverage averaging roughly $100 a month and an additional 13 percent plan to implement the practice next year as part of a "growing trend to rethink dependent subsidies."

Additionally, the number of employers who do not offer coverage at all for working spouses is expected to increase from 4 percent in 2013 to 8 percent in 2014, the survey showed.

The health care law, Kaiser Health News explains, requires employers to cover employees and dependent children, but not spouses or domestic partners.

That exception may result in families facing higher overall health care costs if a working spouse is forced to buy more expensive coverage through their own employer. 

"The $500 in-network family deductible for UPS’s basic plan, for example, is less than the nationwide average of $733," the Kaiser News article stated.

Are you currently covered through your spouse's plan even though your employer also offers health coverage? Did you choose your spouse's plan due to lower costs, better benefits or some other reason? Will your out-of-pocket health insurance costs rise if you are forced to leave your spouse's plan and enroll in your employer's plan? Let us know in the comments.