Companies cutting spouses from health care
By Julie Rovner, NPR
When UPS told workers that it would no longer offer health coverage for spouses who had their own job-based insurance, it caused a big stir. But the shipping giant has plenty of company.
So many employers are trying to cut back on health coverage for spouses that it has become a trend. The practice began well before the Affordable Care Act passed, and the connection to the law, in some cases, isn’t that direct.
About 12 percent of employers have this provision in their policies, says Tracy Watts, who heads the health care reform team at Mercer, a benefits consulting firm.
Mercer surveyed employers who have some sort of restriction on health coverage of spouses, and found that about half of those employers, or 6 percent, have imposed a surcharge for spouses who could get coverage at their own jobs.
“The other 6 percent exclude spouses who have coverage elsewhere,” Watts says. That’s the approach UPS is taking.
So is the University of Virginia. Susan Carkeek, the university’s head of human resources, says the decision was mostly about simple arithmetic.
The connection to the healthcare law is absolutely directly related. The law doesn’t take spouses into consideration at all. It’s just one of hundreds of misses in the law. How dare companies attempt to make money or in this case save money. What are they thinking…
I worked for a large corporation that started charging a higher premium if your spouse could be covered by their own employer and this was long before Obama was even president. The spouse just needs to use their own employer for coverage.
Boone, please explain why any company anywhere should pay for any employees health insurance. If health insurance, why not my food?
How can companies continue to pay for escalating costs of health care and not go bankrupt?
There still seems to be businesses finding success in Hawaii, even though it is mandatory for ALL employers to provide health care for their full time employees since the seventies.
How can companies continue to pay for escalating costs of health care and not go bankrupt?
John, the answer is they can’t unless they (the companies) are the govt. 52% of the people who work in this country work for the govt in one way or another and do not like Obama Care because now the little folks will get what they have. Free or little out of pocket cost healthcare along with higher than minimum wages. There should be a wage cutoff for healthcare share costs which could be pay 15% of your share for every $10.00 per hour increments. Make $40 bucks an hour pay 60% of your health care. Right now most of us pay upwards of 48% of our wages to healthcare based on a $15.00 an hour job (using Tahoe as the example)I for one would like to use the money to buy food for my family. Govt (to include our city) pensions are another downfall. Watch the council meeting.