For Those Of You Who INSIST This Has Not And Will Not Happen...

I tried to tell you this was happening, but several refused to believe it and told me it wasn't true. Well, I still think it's true.

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_...m-to-cut-employee-hours?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1

By Lisa Myers and Carroll Ann Mears
NBC News

Employers around the country, from fast-food franchises to colleges, have told NBC News that they will be cutting workers’ hours below 30 a week because they can’t afford to offer the health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

“To tell somebody that you’ve got to decrease their hours because of a law passed in Washington is very frustrating to me,” said Loren Goodridge, who owns 21 Subway franchises, including a restaurant in Kennebunk. “I know the impact I’m having on some of my employees.”

Goodridge said he’s cutting the hours of 50 workers to no more than 29 a week so he won’t trigger the provision in the new health care law that requires employers to offer coverage to employees who work 30 hours or more per week. The provision takes effect in 16 months.

Luke Perfect, who has worked at Goodridge’s Kennebunk Subway for more than a decade, said it was “horrible” to learn he was among the employees whose hours would be limited, and that it would be a financial hardship. “I’m barely scraping by with overtime,” he said.

The White House dismisses such examples as "anecdotal." Jason Furman, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisors, said, “We are seeing no systematic evidence that the Affordable Care Act is having an adverse impact on job growth or the number of hours employees are working. … ince the ACA became law, nearly 90 percent of the gain in employment has been in full-time positions.”

But the president of an influential union that supports Obamacare said the White House is wrong.

"It IS happening," insisted Joseph Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has 1.2 million members. "Wait a year. You'll see tremendous impact as workers have their hours reduced and their incomes reduced. The facts are already starting to show up. Their statistics, I think, are a little behind the time."

In a letter to Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, Hansen joined other labor chieftains in warning that the ACA as presently written could “destroy the foundation of the 40-hour work week that is the backbone of the middle class.”

NBC News spoke with almost 20 small businesses and other entities from Maine to California, and almost all said that because of the new law they’d be cutting back hours for some employees – an unintended consequence of the new law.

At St. Petersburg College, a public university in Florida where most of the faculty is part-time, 250 have had their hours reduced for the fall term because the college said it can’t afford to offer them health insurance.

St Petersburg’s president, Dr. Bill Law, said providing health care for the 250 adjunct professors would cost more than $777,000 dollars a year. "The cost associated with making a part-timer benefits-eligible really is not available to us as a public college,” said Law.

"I don't think anyone [passed the law] so they could make our life worse,” said Law. “They did it because people need access to health care."

Part-time math professor Tracey Sullivan said she will lose half her income because of the cuts.

"I never thought it would impact me directly,” said Sullivan. “I was stunned when I got the email...I love teaching at St. Pete College but that is a significant cut."

Many businesses are reluctant to talk about cutting hours for fear the public will view them as stingy or uncaring about their workers. But Goodridge said that many small businesses have very small profit margins and that while he already provides health insurance to senior employees, offering health insurance to many more workers would require him to pass a significant price increase on to his customers.

"The consumer only has so much money in their pocket," he said. "I just don't feel, knowing my customers and knowing my business, now is the time to be raising prices."

In July, the administration announced that it had delayed implementation of the “employer mandate,” which was supposed to take effect on Jan. 1. Now businesses with more than 50 workers will not be penalized for failing to offer insurance to full-time employees until Jan. 1, 2015.

Goodridge has given his Subway employees a reprieve until he hears more from the administration, but still plans to make cutbacks before the mandate kicks in. And other businesses that had already planned cuts have not necessarily delayed them. St. Petersburg college officials said they don’t want to undo the cuts they’ve already made only to revisit them next year.

While the small businesses and the union agree there's a problem, they disagree about the appropriate solution.

Some businesses want to raise the threshold to 40 hours. But Hansen said 40 hours would be a “gift to employers” that would simply allow them to continue to skirt the law by cutting workers off at 39 hours. Instead, Hansen and other union leaders have proposed lowering the threshold to 20 hours. They have also objected publicly to a tax provision of the ACA that impacts the health plans they already offer to some union members.

“We still support the act,” said Hansen. “It does an awful lot of good things. We just want the administration and Congress, if they can, to fix it.”

 

This can't be true. The Libs here have repeatedly told me that Obamacare will reduce premiums, make insurance more affordable for everybody and not impact small or large businesses.

ARE YOU CALLING THEM LIARS??? :MARIS61:

 

Of course not!

Just that a while ago I was telling about several Portland area business changing employees to part time to avoid the tax and got some uppity answers (or so I recall).

 

It's been interesting to see the arguments for Obamacare transform over the last couple years as this piece of crap bill has become a reality:

First: Obamacare will not require increases and won't cause more deficit spending.
Wrong.

Next: Ok fine, but Obamacare will lower insurance premiums and lower health care costs.
Wrong.

Next: Ok fine, but Obamacare will be good for businesses and help with their insurance costs
Wrong.

Next: Yeah but Obamacare is necessary because some people that can't afford insurance can get cancer.
True. But there are many other, better solutions for this.

Next: Ok, but Obamacare is necessary because of pre-existing conditions.

ETC, ETC, ETC...

 

Congress avoids the POS so as to not lose aids...

oboma puts off the costs to big business just the other day till 2015..

on and on

yeah this bill is not what was promised to the few that believed in it

 

The sad part of all is that there are much better solutions to healthcare for those who cannot get it and they were rejected so the President could start down the single national healthcare plan road. This is only going to get worse....

 

If you are saying that this poor cats diet is much like obamas health care plan, well, I agree

 

And now in other news...

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatc...n-delays-obamacare-cap-on-out-of-pocket-costs

Enjoy!

 

It's a shitty bill

 

I've just got to ask. Those of you that voted for President Obama, do you feel betrayed now that the costs for the ACA (and who will pay them) are coming to light? Or, will you be happy we have universal heath care, no matter the cost?

Go Blazers

 

This country has some serious problems and health care is at the top of the list. Don't see many good things being said about Obamacare. At the same time, when I read this article I also read between the lines to notice that there are many people out there working low paying jobs for 30 hrs a week and living with no health insurance. it really is an embarrassing situation for our country.

I think the most telling comments comes from someone who supports Obamacare and still needs to cut hours.

St Petersburg’s president, Dr. Bill Law, said providing health care for the 250 adjunct professors would cost more than $777,000 dollars a year. "The cost associated with making a part-timer benefits-eligible really is not available to us as a public college,” said Law.

"I don't think anyone [passed the law] so they could make our life worse,” said Law. “They did it because people need access to health care."

There is a health care crisis our country is facing with the baby boom generation starting to enter the golden years and the standard of living for young people with low paying jobs is to live life without health care.

I don't think Obama is going to fix this problem but I do think this is an issue that has to be dealt with as so many people living without health insurance should be unacceptable in this country.

 

Although this is debatable (all states have forms of free healthcare available to people who cannot afford it), and I am not a big fan of the traditional method of healthcare, Obamacare was not even a step in the right direction. A hopelessly bad bill trying to fix a bad situation. And now we are wasting time and money to try and do something positive.

 

This. I fail to see how this is going to help the economy. I'm assuming, as is, there will be many people having to pick up a second part-time job when their hours are cut (but they'll survive - just review the McDonald's example on personal budgets).

Part of me says, "Hey, this won't effect me." But I don't see how America, in general, won't be effected. If people's budgets are tighter, they'll spend less. That trickles down on all of us. Sure, maybe the public will be more contientious and spend less (living within our means is a good thing), but that's not how this country is built. And I think many of us have already learned to cut back after the last recession.

 

The first Obama election I went Third Party. The second Obama election I voted Obama. I actually thought Mitt was okay, but I believed a Second Term Obama would be better.

I don't know if ACA will affect me directly. Our company does not have many part time employees. I like the fact that preexisting conditions are not going to be an issue. However, I know I have a sibling who really needs and wants benefits. They were in favor of Universal Health Care. I hope that this all plays out to benefit them. I don't think they are going into the Fast Food industry. In fact one of them is going into the Health Care industry. I have not been keeping tabs on ACA costs, etc., but it is not a surprise to me that shit rolls downhill. It is simple economics. However, if we just wanted businesses to be completely unregulated we would have unsafe working conditions, unfettered discrimination, pollution running rampant, etc. I can't say that the benefits don't outweigh the costs. If you want more hours, find a 2nd job in the Fast Food industry.

 

Well thinking about it more, I guess my premiums might go up or my benefits might go down. But, I am not going to get all pissed off about it. That is bad for my heart and might make me need health care that I can't afford.

 

Even that would have likely increased insurance for us all. The insurance companies have to make their money somewhere. Requiring insurance companies to take on people with pre-existing conditions would be cost-prohibitive to the insured, so the only way to make it affordable is to raise everybody's rates.

Agreed on how things should have been done. I mean, for those of us who never, or even rarely, go to the doctor, yet have paid (or have work pay) significant funds in health insurance.... I mean, that's a lot of money paid in for something I receive no benefit for (I would if I needed it). I, or my company, should get a fat kick-back. Instead, without the people that don't go to the doctor's frequently, the system wouldn't have "worked" for as long as it has.

 

I voted for Obama and I feel betrayed on some things. But if anything it makes me a nihilist and angry. It doesn't make me want to vote Republican.

 

You don't even know who the Republican candidate will be, and you've made up your mind you won't vote for them.

Way to keep an open mind.