And In the “ObamaCare” Fallout Department . . .
. . . well, it looks like it’s already started. Here they are – job cuts announced or planned to date by businesses specifically due to AHCA mandates. Numbers are full-time positions to be cut:
- Welch Allyn – 275 (approx 10% of their workforce)
- Dana Holding Corp – estimated to be approx $24 million over 6 years, or $4M per year (no firm number given besides the 6 or so in management who’ve gotten the ax so far)
- Stryker – 5% of global workforce (aprox 1,170)
- Boston Scientific – between 1,200 and 1,400 US jobs (investment focus and hiring will shift to China)
- Medtronic – 1,000
- Smith & Nephew – 770
- Abbott Labs – 700
- Covidien – 595
- Kinetic Concepts – 427
- St. Jude Medical – 300
- Hill Rom – 200
That’s over 6,700 full-time jobs getting the axe so far – plus however many jobs $24 million in payroll equates to at Dana Holding. Assuming an average salary of $90k and allowing +1/3 for benefits, that comes to another 200.
Above and beyond those reductions, many other companies are actively looking for ways to reduce current or future workers’ hours. Seems as if the AHCA penalty calculation formula doesn’t count part-time workers – so replacing a full-time worker with two part-timers is now really a net plus for the company. Companies that are looking at doing exactly this (e.g., reducing many workers to 28 hours weekly or less) include the following:
- Darden Restaurants (Red Lobster/Olive Garden/Longhorn)
- JANCOA Janitorial Services
- Kroger
The reductions identified above are, of course, only the beginning. So if you’re hoping to find a full-time job some time in the foreseeable future – well, your search likely just got a whole lot harder.
Each of these reductions will also have a ripple effect due to forced reductions in spending by those who lose jobs or who saw their hours reduced. The overall net effect will be to reduce business activity overall – leading to more cutbacks and layoffs in other industries affected by that reduced spending.
And this doesn’t include pending cuts due to sequestration, targeted Federal budget cuts, and the like.
Yeah, looks it looks like we’re in for really good times. Laissez les bon temps rouler!
(For the perception-challenged, yes – the last two sentences were indeed sarcasm.)
Category: Dumbass Bullshit, Economy
I’m predicting that miraculously the unemployment rate will stay below 8% even though millions of people will lose their jobs.
@2
Ok, I’m a bit confused. How is making it more expensive to run a business going to help get people hired again?
And no, I don’t know why I just @-ed myself. I’ll just pretend it was intentional.
So you mean to tell me that people who don’t have insurance are going to have to pay a $4000 tax and this isn’t a penalty? And businesses are not going to be encouraged to keep health insurance plans… Nobody saw this plan being a problem?
@4
I guess they just expected business to suck up the loss. I’m not quite clear on why they would think that when historically speaking, the majority of business react to an increase in operating costs either by passing the cost off onto the consumer or reducing/eliminating those costs.
Oh…I forgot one…going out of business.
Don’t forget the rest of the taxes we will have to pay for his golf trips.
Well, we’ll see how this works out:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/08/15027746-military-friendly-firms-spur-positive-upswell-in-veteran-hiring-more-work-needed-report?lite
Anyone besides me think those jobs will go down the toilet, too?
I think the only advantage to hiring someone like me is that I have Medicare and VA health care benefits, and I’m perfectly willing to work part time. Hey, maybe there will be an upswing in hiring us old folks. Our experience, as I hear it, is valuable.
Of course, that could be a rumor.
@Ex-PH2 Wait till they pull from the VA health care because they think you still haven’t given your fair share.
@7
“I think the only advantage to hiring someone like me is that I have Medicare and VA health care benefits”
Capitalize on it while you’ve got it, because nobody knows just how long you’ll have those…
So you’re saying the WalMart business model of employing part-timers is a real winner?
The Prognazis head would explode if there was anything in them.
GO WALLY WORLD!
Sounds like the fallout now includes Gen David Petraeus.
I’m not a real smart guy, but when I first heard about the Obamam-care plan, and actually thought about the concept…I knew it wouldn’t work.
Now, if a dumb, back-woods, hit-shit-with-a-stick, grunt like me could figure it out, how come all those smart fellers in Washington D.C. couldn’t?
How come the rest of the country couldn’t figure it out?
Does this mean compared to the Democraps, I am a FRIGGIN genius?
I don’t normally leave comments, but I’ve been reading your blog for awhile now. And I’ve been directly affected by Obama’s reelection.
I’ve been part time at my job for over 6 months now, it’s a small company and I stay because of the flexibility (with kids and all). Movement within the company happened and it became possible that my position may become full time. But because of the healthcare and the concerns my boss has with the President, he is actively cutting costs, and I’m still part time. And I have no doubt that if sales continue to go down, I will be the first person to be let go.
It gets personal when it happens to you, and not just some numbers.
Right now, anything to do with healthcare, or welfare, or social programs, is the place to be for full-time work. It’s what everyone else will be working to pay for.
Until the money runs out, anyway.
I wish I could say I was joking.
Two local businesses have already informed their workers that all full-time positions (except management) will be eliminated and replaced with part time capped at 25 hours per week. the reason is ObamaCare. They’d rather pay the fines for not providing health insurance to their employees.
This shit is getting real even as we speak.
Thoughts on Gen. Petraeus resigning from the CIA?
http://www.kcci.com/news/politics/Petraeus-resigns-over-affair/-/9356970/17346414/-/bre7eyz/-/index.html
Bank of America pulled this shit 30 years ago and nobody complained. Blame the CEOs and their greed.
See if they get anybody to work there if there are NO health benefits.
And by the way your Tricare are going to change thanks to a 2007 Bush policy. Its time we had universal coverage so people would quit pulling all this shit.
@17:
Suck it and your “universal healthcare”. That’s some serious socialist shit and the surest way to bankrupt a mation.
Healthcare is NOT a right. Not now, never has been, and if we can survive this ObamaCare crap, it never will be.
Health Insurance, health Care, aren’t a natural right anymore than you have a right to have a carpenter fix your roof or an auto mechanic fix your candy-ass Prius.
Doctors and Nurses go to school to learn a trade just like any other tradesman. They expect to be able to compete in the marketplace on their own merits, not on the whims of some fucking bureaucrat who thinks he can lord it over them and tell them how much they’ll get reimbursed.
How would you feel if the frikkin’ government told you how much you could earn? You’d be outraged, and you’d be burning up the phone lines to your Congress Critters to have that overturned.
Anyone who openly activates for universal healthcare is an enemy of freedom, and doesn’t deserve his citizenship.
Nicely said, Tim. Beat me to it. And, then there’s this, http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/267095-interior-proposes-shielding-federal-lands-in-west-from-drilling
Seems that Obama and the Interior Dept figures that gas must have dropped too much, it’s time to make sure no one drills for oil anywhere around here.
@Whitey, that’s fine. I’ve paid more than my fair share, back to 1963. I still have all my tax returns, too. I’ve probably paid more thatn the DC Big Cheese Deluxe.
Not gonna worry about it. Can’t waste my time on that.
From a small busienss perspective, my wife and I maintain a S-Corp and consult on the side.
I have fired all future employees and will now never grow the business.
Thanks Barry for getting the vote out to just about every dependancy minded person, whether they were eligable to vote or not!
I’m retired and self-employed. I can only fire either myself or my cat Mikey. His benefits (cookies) cost about $1.59 a month.
I think I’ll keep him, and me, too. Someone has to cook around here.
Here’s another one closing down:
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/coal-company-fires-150-workers-response-obama-re-election-1C6977698
They add up.
Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand
Make a might ocean
And an empty land.
@12
It’s not supposed to work. It’s supposed to make people want government to directly run healthcare.
Energizer now
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/11/energizer-to-slash-workforce-by-10-or-about-1500-jobs/
Great, just great, more people to get addicted to the 99 week unemployment benefits and SNAP. Small gov’t Republicans are in a tough spot…how do you scale back costly benefits in a tough economy and not get demonized as cold heartless SOBs? All these firings may actually play to Obama’s and Dem’s advantage regardless of high unemployment numbers…never fear Santa Claus is here to save the day. Those mean Republicans want to steal food from your children.
Unemployment figures are only meaningful to those who actually wish to work or hire workers. Since such a high percentage of the population now has no interest in working, learning, producing something which might justify their continuing to waste the air around us, continuing to report how many of us are unemployed, even using a contrived definition, means nothing.
@26 – Part of the sequestration act is that unemployment benefits have a cutoff date for everyone. It does not matter who put that bill together. It only matters that it goes into effect on January 1.
Will that provide an incentive for those people to find work? What if Obamacare means that companies that let people go are not hiring anyone at all? What if there IS no work?
Uh-oh.
I’m so looking forward to the expiration of our current bargaining agreement in December of next year, what with this and the major taxes of Obamacare kicking in come January 2014.
Fellows, I am honestly confused here. If socialized healthcare is such an evil, destructive force, then how is it that I’m typing this on a phone made in Finland that I bought from a store I drove to in a Japanese car that I later used to bring home furniture made in Sweden? (even though the meatball munching punks made me assemble it myself)
And really, who among us isn’t at least a little embarrassed that the Canadian dollar is as strong as our own, despite a much smaller economy and the crushing burden of treating people like human beings?
Here’s a little something, from the Latin quarter:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/09/15029245-hispanics-to-obama-we-helped-you-now-you-help-us?lite
Somehow being free to choose what you buy in the way of cars, phones and furniture translates into an equivilance with mandated bureaucratic interferance in health care? Just because you are free to support socialist foreign systems of governance through your purchases has absolutely nothing whatever to do with anything other than proving how free you are to choose.
And why, if the Canadian system of health care is so far superior to ours, do so many Canadians opt to pay for care here? You must have a very low opionion of humans in general if “treating people like human beings” means that our health care should be brought down to the level of all those countries whose citizens who can afford it now come to the US for medical treatment.
How does removing many people from the high quality health care to which they now have access improve anything for those who do not now have that access? Oh, I see – making it equally bad for everyone is “treating people like human beings?”
@17
It won’t matter if health insurance isn’t a benefit with company A with it also isn’t a benefit with companies B through Z and beyond.
I work for a medical device manufacturer. Obamacare has a tax on this industry. It will discourage innovation. The company is profitable now, but what happens when this tax burden kicks in (and what, exactly, is the purpose of the tax?) and profitability begins to suffer? The department I am in is getting bigger right now because of the increased regulation in Obamacare (I’m in the Compliance department). So long as the company exists, my position shouldn’t go anywhere; but if the company gets to a point where it cannot sustain operations, where am I?
I am also waiting to see what is going to happen with my health insurance premiums. I find out November 20th when open enrollment starts… Lucky for me, it’s just me right now.
@30, WTF does your phone, car and furniture have to do with a government mandate to buy healthcare?
@30
the crushing burden of treating people like human beings?
How does being forced to either enter into a contract with a company on a government-approved list or pay a fine equate to treating people like human beings (assuming you’re equating Canada’s taxpayer-funded “healthcare for all if you live long enough to get the treatment” to Obamacare)?
@30
I live in Europe and I can tell you that my reciept for a coke is 2 Euro for the coke and then 1.80 Euro in tax. That is how they afford universal healthcare.
I don’t mind the idea of universal healthcare, but there has to be a way to pay for it. If the American public wants free healthcare bad enough that they are willing to accept 40-50% tax rates on products then so be it.
The problem is that people want the free healthcare along with the other free services without having to provide anything in return. That is the problem with the entire policy.
Bingo, Daniel. The principle at work is TANSTAAFL – “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch” – AKA “all you need to know about economics in 9 words”.
For the benefit of Joe, Sippy, exAF, Harrison, and others who might need this spelled out, I’ll explain. That means that whenever something provided is “free” – it’s not. Someone somewhere actually pays for it.
Until the money runs short, of course. Then it becomes rationed or unavailable. Or both.
@30: That’s an interesting concept you have there; treating people like human beings. Where is that list of requirements for treatment of humans?
Where does the concept come from that providing medical care to someone for free is somehow a human right? Where is the list of what is a human right? I guess I must have missed that part in the Constitution and civics class in school.
Sweden has admitted in the past that their socialized healthcare has put an extreme strain on their economy and their welfare system has caused them to start sending their young people across the border to Norway; or did you miss those stories? Canada has a much smaller population, higher taxes and they are drilling oil in their own country for export. Canada, also, has clinics and hospitals that are idle for several months per year, because they are budgeted a certain amount of money from the government and when it runs out, that clinic or hospital has to shut down until the next fiscal year. The wait for specialized treatment is 3-4 times the wait here and sometimes longer than that.
What it boils down to is; you get what you pay for and the government in Canada decides when, what, and how much you get treated like a human being.
Here’s company with employees in two states announcing a layoff directly blaming Obama:
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20121109&id=15779130>1=33009
And Los Angeles is now declaring meatless Mondays:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/10/15068169-meatless-mondays-la-urges-residents-to-turn-vegetarian-one-day-a-week?lite>1=43001
I particularly like that one because vegetarians always fail to take into account the weather, which has a direct impact on food crops, and the sheer amount of land and back-breaking physical labor involved, plus the fertilizers required, to turn everyone veggie. But it comes from Los Angeles, where the plight of the migrant worker is not related to the dinner plate.
Meatless Mondays?
Companies laying off workers, not hiring, or offering their employees options such as only 5 paid vacations, or no matching funds in the 401K in order to pay for Obamacare?
News stories mentioning the looming insolvency of Social Security?
Sounds like we’re headed for Yugoslavia, circa 1991.
Not to worry, the Democratic and Independent masses will:
a. Blame Bush
b. Blame the Jews, in Israel
c. Blame Whitey
Heh, I told you so.
Anyone who is interested to see where we are headed should spend a little time and read Jerry Pournell & Larry Niven’s “Fallen Angels”. It’s free online and considering when it was written, you’ll be amazed at how prophetic this story is.
http://library.beau.org/lib/ebooks/baen/01/Fallen%20Angels/Fallen_Angels.htm
This is what happens when you have “nanny care” health care coverage:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2231206/Closing-A-E-units-IS-UK-policy-Admission-Government-aide-makes-mockery-claim-closures-local-doctors-patients.html
And don’t think for one tiny second that it won’t happen here.
You will still have to pay an insurance premium for your health insurance — no, it is NOT a freebie — but you may have no choice in where you end up.
This is to update the ObamaCare fallout:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/willis-report/blog/2012/11/12/obamacare-jack-insurance-premiums?intcmp=related
If you’re self-employed and run a very small business with no employees, your health insurance premiums run around $675 per month. A rise of 9% in this premium, plus the annual rise based on your age, can and will make the premium well over $750 per month, which is NOT affordable.
And for the daydreamers in the crowd, there is no premium support, i.e., vouchers, in either the House or Senate versions of the bill. I reread both of them, all 5400++ pages, to make sure. There is nothing in either of them, however, that says you cannot self-insure as with a health care savings account, but if you do so, you can no longer list it as a tax-exempt item because of this bill.
Seriously…any of us who served know what Government health care is like.
#43 Ex-PH2: you read all 5400++ pages? WTH? You into pain? Or are the Big Bang Theory re-runs rotting your mind?
The contractors I work with have had to take a survey on different options for ‘assisting’ their company to pay for Obamacare:
– 5 instead of 10 paid holidays
– No matching 401K contributions (or greatly reduced)
Smart managers will reduce staff and have them work multiple contracts.
Good thing with blanket amnesty is that will be very easy to import doctors from wherever in order to handle the patient load under Obamacare.
Well, DaveO, sometimes I’m up late working on a book and then I can’t get to sleep. I try to avoid bottled sleep aids like whiskey and rye or pills, and use government legislation instead. I guarantee that either one of those bills will cure your insomnia in five minutes.
Have you tried reading the budget lately? It’s even more of a snoozer.
Speaking of health insurance…anyone see the recently proposed hikes in Tricare Prime and the new rule that anyone more than 40 miles from a MTF is automatically switched to Standard?
The lot next door to Obama’s house in Chicago is for sale:
CHICAGO—
The owner of the vacant lot next door to the Obama home has placed the property up for sale.
For $899,000, the buyer will get the 50 foot by 150 foot lot and a thorough screening bu the U.S. Secret Service.
The owners of the property paid $675,000 four years ago with plans to build a single-family home.
Looks like they don’t to be his neighbors, after all.
Convincing foreign healthcare providers to come here won’t be difficult, DaveO. But getting them licensed to practice in the US likely will be.
I have a cousin whose wife emigrated (legally) from Mexico years ago after they married. She was a practicing dentist in Mexico in a large city.
She’d require 2 years of certification training to work in the US as a dental technician, and would have to literally go back to dental school to get licensed in this country.
She’s not working as either.
Poor, deluded Baggers and Cons. You still believe your CEO’s are looking out for your best interests? lol Did you stop to think why they didn’t do this BEFORE the election? Obamacare costs less than they are claiming. A LOT less. They just don’t want to abide by the rules and offer it to you because of their political affiliation. They’re doing this because NOW just days after the election? The Act went into law in 2010! They are using the American workers that keep their businesses running as their political scapegoats. Wake up, people. Read the actual Act and learn the truth. Or choke on the KoolAid being poured down your throats from these GOP CEO’s. You should all be boycotting these business for treating the American people as something to wipe their feet on!