Wow! Thanks, Obamacare!
02-22-2013, 02:47 PM
#161
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More cuts:
Why your boss is strumping your wife - MarketWatch
I wonder when Joe will believe me that Obamacare was designed to destroy the private health insurance market. I'll keep waiting.
Why your boss is strumping your wife - MarketWatch
By denying coverage to spouses, employers not only save the annual premiums, but also the new fees that went into effect as part of the Affordable Care Act.
I wonder when Joe will believe me that Obamacare was designed to destroy the private health insurance market. I'll keep waiting.
Last edited by olderguy; 02-27-2013 at 09:22 AM.
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02-25-2013, 10:34 AM
#162
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• Richer nations tend to spend more, regardless of how they structure their healthcare systems.
• The United States is halfway down the road to a single-payer system thanks to programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
• America’s pervasive government-created third-party payer system leads to high prices and costly inefficiency.
• Government is the problem and less government is the solution.
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02-25-2013, 02:53 PM
#163
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New Obamacare Regulation Invites Whistleblower Complaints | CNS News
On Friday, the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published an interim final rule in the Federal Register that establishes procedures and time frames for handling retaliation complaints filed under Section 1558 of the Affordable Care Act.
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Whistleblower complaints may also arise in cases where a large employer does not offer a health insurance plan that meets certain levels of affordability and minimum value. In those cases, the company may be penalized if any of its full-time employees receives a tax credit or subsidy through an Obamacare insurance exchange. That could create an incentive for an employer to fire or lay off an employee.
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Whistleblower complaints may also arise in cases where a large employer does not offer a health insurance plan that meets certain levels of affordability and minimum value. In those cases, the company may be penalized if any of its full-time employees receives a tax credit or subsidy through an Obamacare insurance exchange. That could create an incentive for an employer to fire or lay off an employee.
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02-26-2013, 08:06 AM
#165
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Singapore is a free market champion, like switzerland; unlike the US. Their GNI per capita is greater than US as well. They are a fast growing, rich nation, that understands the gov't doesn't have to keep their citizens poor and in chains.
good read on switzerland: Why Switzerland Has the World's Best Health Care System
good read on switzerland: Why Switzerland Has the World's Best Health Care System
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02-26-2013, 09:10 AM
#167
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I'm still working through the details - healthcare economics is not my strong suit - but it looks like our company is reducing benefits/increasing (premium and out of pocket) costs on our healthcare, largely because our previous plan would be considered a "Cadillac healthcare plan."
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02-26-2013, 12:33 PM
#169
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GAO Report: Obamacare Adds $6.2 Trillion to Long-Term Deficit - By Andrew Stiles - The Corner - National Review Online
not one dime. Just 62,000,000,000 dimes.
not one dime. Just 62,000,000,000 dimes.
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02-27-2013, 09:22 AM
#170
more cuts:
why your boss is strumping your wife - marketwatch
i wonder when joe will believe me that obamacare was designed to destroy the private health insurance market. I'll keep waiting.
why your boss is strumping your wife - marketwatch
i wonder when joe will believe me that obamacare was designed to destroy the private health insurance market. I'll keep waiting.
ftfy
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03-02-2013, 03:39 PM
#171
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More than 700 pages of healthcare rules released - The Hill's RegWatch
It took the Obama administration more than 700 pages to explain four Obamacare rules on Friday.
It took the Obama administration more than 700 pages to explain four Obamacare rules on Friday.
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03-02-2013, 05:46 PM
#172
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Why would the President of the United States wish to abolish private insurance firms and implement a state-run health insurance system?
Nor the how of it.
Insurance companies are large, profitable corporations administered at the top levels by smart people with a desire to make money. These individuals are unlikely to just throw up their hands and say "we give up."
Consider primary education, as it is an excellent parallel topic. The various state governments have long mandated that all children must attend school, and have instituted taxpayer-funded schools for them to attend. This was not always so. Publicly funded schools were rare in the 19th century, typically organized and administered at the community level. It was not until the early 20th century that elementary education became universally mandatory, and state-run schools became universally accessible.
What must the people of that time have thought? The government wishes to abolish our community schools and create a single-payer system for education.
And yet private schools continue to exist. In the US, fully 25% of all K-12 schools are private. Many are affiliated with a religious institution, and increasingly many are not. The number of students enrolled in private schools at the K-12 levels has, in fact, steadily increased at single digit levels as a percentage of all students enrolled in school.
Why, then, will an industry such as insurance, which is much more profitable and lucrative than schooling, fare so much worse?
I guess I'm just an idiot, but I need this to be explained to me in simple terms that I can understand. Not what, but why and how?
Is employer-sponsored health insurance likely to decline in the years to come as a result of increased overhead from the AHCA? Quite possibly it may. But to be frank, employer-sponsored health insurance is part of the problem, as it masks an understanding of the true economics of healthcare from those whom it benefits.
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03-13-2013, 10:24 AM
#178
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Five Guys: Obamacare will boost burger prices | WashingtonExaminer.com
Some Fluff on the Media's reaction:
Matt Yglesias at Slate.com called Ruffer a liar because, you know, Yglesias knows the hamburger business better than the North Carolina entrepreneur:
Yglesias then negates his own argument for the sake of demonizing all corporations who dare to make profits with their businesses: (emphasis mine)
Center for American Progress, John Podesta's team of bullies, basically called Ruffer a dead-beat for denying his employees "basic health care":
Center for American Progress goes on to claim that companies who have gone public with the problems implementing Obamacare suffer due to the bad publicity they receive. They point to Olive Garden as an example:
The claim that criticizing Obamacare hurts your bottom line due to bad publicity is a self-fulfilling prophesy as Center for American Progress is one of the driving forces trying to drum up that bad publicity by trying to bully skittish CEOs who don't want any bad publicity ever for anything.
The report on Olive Garden points to a Huffington Post article titled Darden Restaurants Profit Plunges 37 Percent After Bad Publicity Over Attempt To Skirt Obamacare. Ironically, Huffington Post also weighed in on the Five Guys story thus showing the chain of information flow from liberal think tank to liberal media outlets and back again.
The clear lesson to businesses like Five Guys, or Olive Garden, or Papa John's, or Wendy's, or Whole Foods is obvious: If you dare criticize Obamacare, the media will out you, bully you and shame you into silence. Forget about the news. Forget about the truth. The White House can not be criticized.
"Any added costs are going to have to be passed on," said Mike Ruffer, a Five Guys franchise holder with eight of the popular restaurants in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C. area. He will need all the profits from at least one of his eight outlets just to cover his estimated added $60,000-a year in new Obamacare costs.
Some Fluff on the Media's reaction:
Matt Yglesias at Slate.com called Ruffer a liar because, you know, Yglesias knows the hamburger business better than the North Carolina entrepreneur:
This is self-refuting nonsense. The only situation in which it would make sense for Ruffer to raise prices is if price increases will on net lead to higher revenue. And if price increases will lead to higher revenue (which they might) then it makes sense for Ruffer to raise prices no matter what happens with Obamacare.
In fact, Ruffer himself articulates the truth later which is that Obamacare is going to reduce his profits by about one-eighth and he (and any investors in his business) will eat the loss. With corporate profits as a share of the economy at an all-time high, nobody's going to cry for him either.
As the Examiner explicitly states, Ruffer is actively trying to “escape” the health reform law, and has had his mind made up about it for a while. That’s become an increasingly common position among large employers — particularly in the service industry, where large restaurant chains have been threatening to cut workers’ benefits by shifting costs onto them, cut back on wages, cut back on hours, or raise their products’ prices. Ruffer has, by his own admission, considered every single one of those options. But that isn’t a reflection of the reform law itself — it’s a reflection of companies’ desire to protect their own bottom line by having their low-wage employees go uninsured or obtain coverage through Medicaid, rather than provide them with basic benefits.
The negative press led the company to reverse course on its threat to shift employees to part-time status to avoid covering them under Obamacare. The latest report on Darden’s earnings prove that was a good move, since the restaurants did take a turn for the worse as a result of their bad publicity. Its net income fell 37 percent:
The report on Olive Garden points to a Huffington Post article titled Darden Restaurants Profit Plunges 37 Percent After Bad Publicity Over Attempt To Skirt Obamacare. Ironically, Huffington Post also weighed in on the Five Guys story thus showing the chain of information flow from liberal think tank to liberal media outlets and back again.
The clear lesson to businesses like Five Guys, or Olive Garden, or Papa John's, or Wendy's, or Whole Foods is obvious: If you dare criticize Obamacare, the media will out you, bully you and shame you into silence. Forget about the news. Forget about the truth. The White House can not be criticized.
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03-13-2013, 11:42 AM
#179
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This whole things really points back to the question of who should be providing health insurance.
Currently, it seems like employers are the main provider/subsidizer of health insurance.
One could argue that Obamacare's "unintended" consequences are intended to push that balance more towards the Federal and state government as subsidizing the majority of health insurance.
I hear very few people ask why either should be the primary subsidizer of that product. I guess the real answer is that, with a high stock of unemployed persons and increasing push toward a polarization of skill in service and manufacturing positions, if employers stopped subsidizing health insurance, there is almost no way they would increase wages by a like amount.
That is, if my employer stopped paying for a majority of my health insurance and instead I went out to the marketplace and bought it myself, there is almost no way my employer would give me a raise equal to or greater than the additional amount I would be out of pocket to cover 100% of my insurance expenses.
Currently, it seems like employers are the main provider/subsidizer of health insurance.
One could argue that Obamacare's "unintended" consequences are intended to push that balance more towards the Federal and state government as subsidizing the majority of health insurance.
I hear very few people ask why either should be the primary subsidizer of that product. I guess the real answer is that, with a high stock of unemployed persons and increasing push toward a polarization of skill in service and manufacturing positions, if employers stopped subsidizing health insurance, there is almost no way they would increase wages by a like amount.
That is, if my employer stopped paying for a majority of my health insurance and instead I went out to the marketplace and bought it myself, there is almost no way my employer would give me a raise equal to or greater than the additional amount I would be out of pocket to cover 100% of my insurance expenses.
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03-13-2013, 11:50 AM
#180
I guess the real answer is that, with a high stock of unemployed persons and increasing push toward a polarization of skill in service and manufacturing positions, if employers stopped subsidizing health insurance, there is almost no way they would increase wages by a like amount.
That is, if my employer stopped paying for a majority of my health insurance and instead I went out to the marketplace and bought it myself, there is almost no way my employer would give me a raise equal to or greater than the additional amount I would be out of pocket to cover 100% of my insurance expenses.
That is, if my employer stopped paying for a majority of my health insurance and instead I went out to the marketplace and bought it myself, there is almost no way my employer would give me a raise equal to or greater than the additional amount I would be out of pocket to cover 100% of my insurance expenses.
EDIT: From what I was told by our HR person this type of plan is becoming more common because it often saves the employer money somehow. I am not really sure how that works but I just assumed they were anticipating huge increases in premiums and that this was a way of offloading those future costs onto the employees and making it look like a gift at the same time.
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