Motion "Sensers"

I’m not sure exactly when I was introduced to the concepts behind Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion.  While behavioral finance has laid claim to the concept of (and means of combatting) inertia in benefit plan design, Newton’s first law of motion (sometimes called “the law of inertia”)—first published in the late 1600s—reminds us that (in layman’s terms), an object at rest remains at rest; or perhaps more precisely, an object continues to do whatever it happens to be doing unless a force is exerted upon it.

However, the one I remember most from earlier days is the third law of motion—the notion that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  To this day, I have a “Newton’s cradle” at my desk.

While Newton’s laws were intended to explain the motion of objects, they do seem to have application in matters of human interaction as well.  One need only look at the increasingly strident levels of partisanship on Capitol Hill to appreciate the stridency of “equal and opposite” reactions.

A recent EBRI publication[1] noted that recent decisions by some employers to eliminate health benefits for spouses who were eligible for coverage through their own employer could represent a “tipping point” in employment-based health benefits.  While the report noted that in 2012, 7 percent of employers did not cover spouses when other coverage was available to them, it also cautioned that as of late 2012–early 2013, another 8 percent of large employers were reporting that they planned to exclude spouses from coverage when other coverage was available.

These decisions come at a time when employers are wrestling with how to control the rising cost of providing health benefits to workers, in part due to the requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA).[2]  In fact, one large employer that recently made the decision to drop spousal coverage under those circumstances specifically said, “since the Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide affordable coverage, we believe your spouse should be covered by their own employer.”

EBRI’s analysis indicates that the costs of covering spouses may well represent a tempting cost reduction target for some.  The report notes that, in 2011, policyholders spent an average of $5,430 on health care services, compared with $6,609 for spouses, and—even adjusting for factors such as gender, age, and overall health status—found that spouses still have health care costs that are roughly 7 percent higher than policyholders.

The report cautions, however, that while “first-mover” firms may save money in the short run by eliminating working spouses from their plan, those costs could come back to them over time as other employers embrace that approach—basically returning policyholders to their coverage who heretofore were covered as spouses in other programs.

Ultimately, any savings from those moves will depend upon each firm’s composition of couples and their respective employment statuses.  Indeed, given prevailing levels of cost sharing, the report notes that employers might end up worse off under a change in spousal coverage policies, particularly since employers generally subsidize employee-only coverage more than they subsidize family coverage.

As the EBRI report reminds us, decisions about benefit plan design, like so many other decisions, should be made thoughtfully—and with an eye toward the realization that, for every action there can be an equal, opposite, and sometimes greater, reaction.

Nevin E. Adams, JD

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[1] “The Cost of Spousal Health Coverage” is available online here.

[2] PPACA requires that employers with 50 or more workers provide health coverage to workers and dependent children until they reach age 26. It does not, however, require employers to provide health coverage to spouses, whether or not they are eligible for other health insurance.