1) On September 11, 2013, the Arlington Patch newspaper out of Virginia, citing a Huffington Post article, reported that Trader Joe's, the grocer once recognized for providing health care coverage to it's part-time workers, is about to push those employees off their plan since the company will stop covering employees who work less than 30 hours per week as a result of Obama Care. The change is set for the start of 2014. Instead of insurance, workers will get a check for $500 come January.
More disruption to Americans’ lives for a program and law that has very little chance of ever succeeding. This is just another in a long line of companies, unions, universities, etc. that cannot afford Obama Care and are forced to kick their employees off of existing, completely satisfactory company health care plans in order to stay financially solvent. It will add more Americans to the Obama Care exchanges, probably increasing the cost of operating them and increasing the national debt or will result in more Americans going without health care insurance, the exact opposite of what the legislation was supposed to do. Insanity.
2) A recent research report from Stanford University verifies one of these potential outcomes, namely that under Obama Care, employers may find it less expensive to dump some or all of their current employees onto Obama Care exchanges as a result of the regulations and penalties in the law. This would substantially add to the cost burden on the Federal government, really the American taxpayer, who would have larger subsidy costs with more Americans dumped into the exchanges.
The research conclusion was that the additional cost to the national debt would be about $132 billion. It gave no indication over what time period that would be but since most of Obama Care planning has been over ten year periods, that is probably their window also. According to the research, Washington politicians “should plan for the possibility that the exchange subsidies may end up costing the federal government much more than currently projected.”
This research paints a perfect picture of the whole underlying fallacy of Obama Care. It does NOT reduce health care costs in this country, which is what is needed, it only shifts around the costs. While companies may pay less for health care insurance since they either dumped their plans altogether or forced employees onto the Obama Care exchanges, the American taxpayer will pay more through their Federal taxes since more money will be needed to keep the exchanges going because of more employees having been dumped into the exchanges.
It is nothing more than a huge circuit that gets us right back where we started: high and ever escalating health care costs. The root causes have those high costs are not addressed by Obama Care. All this law does is create a huge Rube Goldberg system that disrupts businesses and their employees without reducing overall costs. Pathetic.
3) According to an article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 21, 2013, United Parcel Service Inc. plans to remove 15,000 spouses from its medical plan because they are eligible for coverage elsewhere. The Atlanta-based logistics company blames Obama Care as a big reason for the decision: “Rising medical costs combined with the costs associated with the Affordable Care Act [Obama Care], have made it increasingly difficult to continue providing the same level of health care benefits to our employees at an affordable cost.”
UPS expects the move, which applies to non-union U.S. workers only, to save about $60 million a year according to a company spokeswoman. More lives disrupted, more distractions for no good reason. I would bet two underlying realities exist here:
First, since most of my contacts with UPS have been male employees, I would bet the vast majority of those 15,000 spouses are women. Ironic that the last Obama Presidential campaign constantly said they were fighting against the fictitious “war on women” and here their fatally flawed but boastful legislation is causing major headaches and disruptions to thousands of women’s lives.
Second, I would also bet that those UPS families will end up paying more for their overall family health care insurance since they will now be dealing with two separate companies health insurance providers rather than being served together as a family and with other UPS families in a larger and probably less costly group plan.
4) In that same article regarding 15,000 spouses scrambling to get new healthcare insurance, is a quote from a government official: "The health care law will make health insurance more affordable, strengthen small businesses and make it easier for employers to provide coverage to their workers," said Joanne Peters, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
It is quotes like these that really undermine my trust in the people that are running this government and the country:
- Are they that out of touch with the realities of Obama Care that they can issue such obviously inane statements?
- Do they really understand how bad this legislation is and are just touting a company line, hoping that somehow everything will work out in the end?
An old saying correctly states that “hope is not a strategy” if that is what they really think. Denying reality does not make it go away or change if that is what they really think. Come on Ms. Peters, check out reality:
UPS spouses, Trader Joe employees and a whole raft of other companies’ employees are losing their current health care insurance coverage because of Obama Care, it will not make it easier for employers to provide coverage to their workers.
Every analysis that has been done so far, every state that has put together their health care insurance exchange programs‘ costs, every unbiased consulting firm analysis has shown that individual health care insurance under Obama care will go up significantly, it will not make health insurance more affordable.
Story after story in a whole slew of news publications have definitively shown that Obama Care is causing small businesses to lay off workers, delay hiring workers, cutting workers’ hours, halting expansion plans, crimping their profit realities and potential, etc., Obama Care is not going to strengthen small businesses.
So out of touch and so dangerous to be so out of touch. Denying reality or having only hope as your strategy never works out well in the end for anybody.
5) Obama Care was passed by a Democratic Party controlled House of Representatives and a Democratic Party controlled Senate and was signed by a Democratic Party President. Not a single Republican in either the House or Senate voted to pass Obama Care. It is a Democratic party contraption and unfolding disaster.
But we have previously reported on Democrats who are jumping or who have already jumped the SS Sinking Obama Care. A lot of unions, who originally supported passage of Obama Care, now want to see it repealed or radically changed since they now understand the negative ramifications on union members’ lives. Democrat Montana Senator Max Baucus has called the implementation of Obama Care a “train wreck.” Democrat Florida Senator Bill Nelson has also voiced his concerns of how poorly Obama Care is shaping up in the real world.
But they are not the only Democrats who are finally realizing, “holy mackerel, what have we done” relative to all or major parts of Obama Care, according to an Independent Journal Report analysis from August 10, 2013:
- Democratic Senator Ben Nelson has voiced his opposition to Obama Care's individual mandate. He told MSNBC that the law has "attracted questions about its Constitutionality," and stated that it's time to look for a "market based approach".
- Three Arizona Democrats in the House of Representatives, Ron Barber, Ann Kirkpatrick, and Kyrsten Sinema, have formally also pledged their support of a bill to repeal the IPAB, i.e. the “death panel“ component of Obama Care that is supposed to keep runaway medical costs under control. It is a major component of Obama Care. “The Hill” reported that all three lawmakers "are considered vulnerable in next year’s election, highlighting the stakes and the political angst surrounding the healthcare measure". In other words, holy mackerel, we need to disassociate ourselves with this lousy piece of legislation if we think we can get reelected.
- Former Massachusetts Democratic Representative Barney Frank co-sponsored a bill to terminate Obama Care's Independent Payment Advisory Board, i.e. death panel. Frank's spokesman had stated that he was against "legislation that would place authority for Medicare payment policy in an unelected, executive branch commission or board.” (Washington Times)
- In 2010, the Virginia state government approved a law protecting residents from “any penalty, assessment, fee or fine as a result of his failure to procure or obtain health-insurance coverage.” In Virginia’s House of Delegates, 55% of Democrats backed this anti-Obama Care legislation, as did 8 of 11 (73%) of its Black Caucus members. (NY Post)
- According to The Washington Times, Vice President Joe Biden recently joined Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, former Chief of Staff Richard Daley and five Democratic Senators in opposition to the President's universal female-contraception requirements, a tenet of the law that tramples the freedom of religion promise of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
- Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Chairman called for Obama Care's controversial cost-cutting board, the IPAB or death panel, to be repealed. He wrote in The Wall Street Journal, "Getting rid of the IPAB is something Democrats and Republicans ought to agree on.”
What does this say about the legislation when DEMOCRATS want to gut or terminate major portions of the legislation? Remember how Obama and members of Congress agreed to illegally ignore the part of Obama Care that says no taxpayer subsidies should be given to members of Congress or their staffs to pay for Obama Care insurance coverage?
Remember how we reported that the vast majority of IRS employees (>90%), the government entity responsible for implementing a lot of the logistics of Obama Care, said they wanted no part of Obama Care for?
Members of Congress personally want nothing to do with this law. IRS employees want nothing to do with this law. Major Democratic political figures and organizations have finally recognized that this law in whole or in parts needs to be put to into permanent retirement. Small businesses want nothing to do with this law. American workers who are having their hours cut, their jobs terminated, or their health insurance cancelled want nothing to do with this law. American workers who now need to go find health insurance coverage for their families or their spouses want nothing to do with this law. 34 states that refused to set up their own Obama Care health insurance exchanges want nothing to do with this law. Anyone who values freedom of choice and freedom from excessive and unnecessary government intervention in their lives want nothing to do with this law.
Makes you wonder who, outside of Obama, Reid, Pelosi and Ms. Peters, who we cited above, in this country actually want this monstrosity to come into their lives, a monstrosity that has no chance of ever being successful
As a last thought, many, if not most, of the Democrats in Congress who voted to pass this legislation, the vast majority of whom never read it, have been in their positions for a long time. Please support our drive for term limits for all Federal officials so that these people are relieved of duty and politically punished for passing such a lousy piece of legislation. You can join our term limits cause at:
www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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