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Major Companies To Dump Employee Health Care Due To Obama’s Communist Health Care Law



Oct 24, 2010 7 Comments ›› Pat Dollard

WASHINGTON (AP) — The new health care law wasn’t supposed to undercut employer plans that have provided most people in the U.S. with coverage for generations.

But last week a leading manufacturer told workers their costs will jump partly because of the law. Also, a Democratic governor laid out a scheme for employers to get out of health care
by shifting workers into taxpayer-subsidized insurance markets that open in 2014.

While it’s too early to proclaim the demise of job-based coverage, corporate number crunchers are looking at options that could lead to major changes.

“The economics of dropping existing coverage is about to become very attractive to many employers, both public and private,” said Gov. Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn.

That’s just not going to happen, White House officials say.

“The absolute certainty about the Affordable Care Act is that for many, many employers who cover millions of people, it increases the incentives for them to offer coverage,” said Jason Furman, an economic adviser to President Obama.

But at least one major employer has shifted a greater share of plan costs to workers, and others are weighing the pros and cons of eventually forcing employees to strike out on their own.

“I don’t think you are going to hear anybody publicly say ‘We’ve made a decision to drop insurance,’ ” said Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. “What we are hearing in our meetings is, ‘We don’t want to be the first one to drop benefits, but we would be the fast second.’ We are hearing that a lot.” Deloitte is a major accounting and consulting firm.

Employer health benefits have been a middle-class mainstay since World War II, when companies were encouraged to offer health insurance instead of pay raises. About 150 million workers and family members are now covered.

When lawmakers debated the legislation, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected it would only have minimal impact on employer plans.


  • Thrasymakhos

    No surprise to anybody with a brain and an ounce of foresight. Obama has stated publicly that “there will be a public option.” What he really meant is that there will be only one option…His crappy plan.

  • Remmy

    Private health insurance companies can not provide the coverage required by the government without increasing rates for everyone..

    Only the government can cover everyone for everything without worrying about paying for it. Just like everything else they do, they just raise taxes.

    Although, they can make some groups exempt when it is warranted by politics and political contributions.

  • NMPatriot

    I stated at a town hall meeting that this would happen, and all Congressman Martin Hienrich would say was that “We all need to have skin in the game” he avoided my question like the plague. Its just common sense that companies would eliminate their health care plans in favor of the Gov. plan and leave the employees holding the bag… of shit!

    NMP

    • trustme1013

      wtf does ‘we all need to have skin in the game’ even mean?!?!?

  • ji

    I just dont understand people.
    They could read the health care bill before it was signed.
    They could read it after it was signed.
    And they had all these people like PD tell them what was in it.
    AND STILL they dont get how bad this bill is.
    Everyone I talk to say whats in the bill is not in the bill and havent read it.

  • Leon from Redding CA

    We don’t need Governor Bredesen’s new scheme to get employers out of healthcare nor do employers need to give up on providing employee health benefits. There already is a way to accomplish both and also allow family members or part time workers to pool money from each job to buy health insurance. Employers can simply contribute into employee-owned LyfeBank accounts. Employees can purchase an insurance policy of their choice, and pay for qualified medical expenses with Visa “smart” cards, all with pretax dollars. visit
    http://www.washingtonstatewire.com/home/3714-how_about_a_401_k_program_for_health_insurance.htm

  • Nm_renegade

    Dear Pat, I strongly suggest that you get educated before calling anything “communist”.  I know real communisn, lived it, you are nothing more than an uneducated moron who can only pretend you know what your talking about.  You know nothing about communisn and as a cancer survivor I had my health insurance policy cancelled and left to fend for myself because no other policy underwriter would touch me.  Thanks to the Obama health care, now able to get affortable coverage with no exclusions.  Obviously that makes me a low life scum bag because am now part of a goverment
    sponcered health program. Perhaps you would like along with all the other idiot teabagger crybabies out there would prefer that all those who cannot get or afford health insurance just simply died when they get seriously ill,  am sure thats a solution that would work for you.