Earlier in the year, the Wall Street Journal reported on ObamaCare forcing employers to drop spousal coverage in their employer-sponsored plans – breaking President Obama’s oft-repeated promise that, “if you like your plan, you can keep it.”

Recent media reports show the trend of spouses losing their current health insurance continues to grow:

• In a memo to employees, the United Parcel Service (UPS) cited “costs associated with the Affordable Care Act” as a reason the company would be forced to exclude 15,000 spouses from the UPS employer plan, going on to note that increased costs “have made it increasingly difficult to continue providing the same level of health care benefits to our employees at an affordable cost.”
• The University of Virginia today announced it too would be discontinuing the offering of spousal coverage for those who have access to coverage elsewhere, among other “major changes” to health care plans as a result of ObamaCare: “U.Va. fac[es] rising health care costs, spiking expenses of high-dollar claims and looming fees and taxes connected with federal health reform….Provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act are projected to add $7.3 million to the cost of the University health plan in 2014 alone.”
• The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported dropping spousal coverage is a tactic many employers in Western Pennsylvania are utilizing to deal with the high costs of ObamaCare.

So, despite claims to the contrary, ObamaCare has been anything but “wonderful” for the American people.  Instead, American families who are already grappling with higher health care costs under the law are also coming face-to-face with the stark reality that they will lose the coverage they have and like.

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