Around the first of the year is typically when employers communicate any changes in insurance plans to their employees. This year some employees are seeing their healthcare insurance jump 80% or more and will find additional ?surcharges? for situations that would be unheard of just a year or two ago, like having a spouse who has access to health insurance through their work. While companies may claim that the increases are due to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), experts say that the new law should not account for more than a 10% change in any individual plan, and that some changes like the surcharges may be totally unrelated. Employers may be looking for ways to displace ever-growing healthcare insurance costs onto employees.
See "Are insurers passing on health care costs to employees", Lisa Meyers, NBC, December 1, 2013