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Some public sector employers are making significant changes to their spousal health benefit offerings. According to the 2018 International Foundation of Employee Benefits Survey, just over 20% of employers now either charge employees more to add a spouse to their health plan or exclude spouses entirely.
A spousal surcharge is just that: an additional fee an employee must pay if they want to include their spouse on the health plan. The fee helps offset the costs associated with spousal coverage and may be an extra $100 a month. Some spousal surcharges only apply to those spouses who have access to their own employer coverage and opt not to elect it. Most surcharges don’t apply to those spouses whose employers don’t offer coverage or for those who are not employed. Surcharges are also not applicable for dependent coverage.
Spousal surcharges can help employers recoup the cost of the spousal coverage as well as encouraging spouses to enroll in their own plan.1 For more information, read the full article.
1 https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/hr-qa/pages/cms_015929.aspx
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