Disney will reportedly restrict health insurance coverage for some US employees’ spouses from next year. Under the new policy, spouses who have access to medical insurance through their own employers will no longer be covered under Disney’s plans, a Disney spokesperson told Business Insider.
The change will not apply to employees’ other dependents. The move comes amid rising healthcare costs prompting major companies to reassess employee benefits.
"Like a growing number of large employers, we're making measured adjustments to our employee benefits in response to rising healthcare costs nationwide," the company mentioned in a statement.
The change, which does not affect dental or vision coverage for employees’ spouses, was first reported by Puck. Joshua Lavine, CEO of insurance advisory firm Capitol Benefits, called Disney’s decision highly unusual.
"We've seen employers reducing their contribution toward the spouse's coverage, but not eliminating the coverage option for those people," he said.
Disney’s policy change will not affect employees’ spouses who are unemployed or whose employers do not offer medical insurance. However, Lavine stated the move could create difficulties for spouses undergoing long-term medical treatment, describing it as an extreme measure given the range of other options available to employers to provide health coverage.
“A better solution is to reduce, or if you have to, eliminate the employer contribution for spouses,” he added.
Disney is also expected to roll out an employee stock-purchase plan in 2027, subject to the required approvals, Business Insider had earlier reported. The company employed around 172,000 people in the US as of September 2025.
The decision to restrict health insurance coverage for some employees’ spouses comes amid a sharp rise in healthcare costs for US employers. Aon estimates that employer healthcare expenses will increase by 9.5% next year, marking the fourth straight year of near-double-digit growth. The insurance brokerage said the trend represents one of the longest periods of elevated healthcare inflation faced by employers in decades.
Starbucks recently announced that, from October, it will stop covering GLP-1 medications when prescribed to benefits-eligible employees for weight-loss treatment. The coffee chain provides health benefits to both full- and part-time employees who work at least 20 hours a week.
More US companies could adopt similar cost-cutting measures as healthcare expenses continue to rise. A Mercer survey conducted this spring found that nearly half of employers with at least 500 workers are considering changes to their medical plans next year, including higher deductibles and copayments. Such adjustments would increase the amount employees have to pay out of pocket, the benefits consulting firm said.
Companies are also scaling back other workplace benefits. Business Insider previously reported that Zoom reduced paid parental leave this year, while Deloitte is set to make similar changes for some US employees from January. Deloitte also intends to reduce or eliminate certain benefits, including annual paid time off, its pension plan and IVF coverage.
Garvit Bhirani is a journalist based in Gurugram. He is a Deputy Chief Content Producer at LiveMint, where he covers national and international news stories, focusing on accuracy and compelling storytelling for readers.
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With a total of six years of experience in journalism, he has previously worked with Vaco Binary Semantics for Google, taking on the role of news curation lead, and reported from the field on health, education, and agriculture stories for 101reporters and News9. He has also served as a content editor for entertainment and news media organisations.
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Garvit holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and mass communication from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and Gurugram University, respectively. During college days, he joined India’s only non-profit student journalism network, where he anchored daily news updates and produced his own weekly show called ‘Data Fix’.
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He was selected for the YES Foundation Media for Social Change Fellowship in Delhi, the Talking Data to the Fourth Pillar residential workshop, and the VOICE Fellowship in Pune.
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He holds certificates in COVID-19-verification reporting, data journalism, food & agriculture, tech policy, media literacy and countering misinformation, and tackling election disinformation courses from Thomson Foundation, IndiaSpend, The Dialogue, US Mission in India, and AFP.
<br><br> He can be reached on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/garvit-bhirani">LinkedIn</a> or on <a href="https://x.com/GarvitBhirani">@garvitbhirani</a> on X
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