Obamacare fallout: Part-time employees losing their health insurance
With Obamacare now about 10 months from taking effect, get used to more stories like this one from the Orlando Sentinel:
Universal Orlando plans to stop offering medical insurance to part-time employees beginning next year, a move the resort says has been forced by the federal government’s health-care overhaul.
The giant theme-park resort, which generates more than $1 billion in annual revenue, began informing employees this month that it will offer health-insurance to part-timers “only until December 31, 2013.”
The reason: Universal currently offers part-time workers a limited insurance plan that has low premiums but also caps the payout of benefits. For instance, Universal’s plan costs about $18 a week for employee-only coverage but covers only a maximum of $5,000 a year toward hospital stays. There are similar caps for other services.
Those types of insurance plans — sometimes referred to as “mini-med” plans — will no longer be permitted under the federal Affordable Care Act. Beginning in 2014, the law will prohibit insurance plans that impose annual monetary limits on essential medical care such, as hospitalization, or on overall spending.
The theory behind Obamacare comes down to this: Liberals believe it is better for you to pay a fine — er, tax — for not having the wonderful health insurance you can’t afford than to continue having the less-wonderful but affordable insurance you already have.
And if you don’t work at the Universal Studios theme park and still buy the line that “if you like your plan, you can keep it,” you might want to read what Colleen Medill, who teaches employee benefits law at the University of Nebraska, told Glenn Reynolds for his Instapundit blog:
I am deeply into studying the impact of Obamacare on employers, and I have been communicating with highly sophisticated ERISA lawyers who are advising employers, from Fortune 50 companies to small firms under 50 employees, on whether to keep or drop or modify their employer group health plans.
It has become very clear to everyone involved who is analytical and not ideological that the rational strategy, for both large and small firms, is to cease providing health care insurance to employees.
No company wants to admit that they are considering eliminating health insurance as an option, or be the first one to drop their health insurance plan, but once a competitor does so, the preference cascade will begin. The clear sentiment is “We will not be the first one to drop our health insurance plan, but we would be a close second.”
The coming preference cascade for employer group health plans is what the Democrats fear the most, because Obamacare was sold to the masses as “if you like your health insurance plan, you can keep it.”
The people who really know the law, and who have been following the avalanche of regulations, have already figured this out. It will take a while for this specialized knowledge to seep downward, because right now only $800+ an hour ERISA attorneys and the most sophisticated HR people understand how Obamacare really works.
Here’s a word to the wise: When a law benefits lawyers who charge $800-plus per hour and leads to fewer benefits for part-time employees, it is not going to be the boon to lower-income people that its advocates claimed it would be.
– By Kyle Wingfield
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
361 comments Add your comment
Steve
February 20th, 2013
3:59 pm
Unbelievable. Anyone who works in health care that would read this tripe would just roll their eyes in disbelief.
I suppose next you’re going to tell me that the earth is hollow, and that Obama is a Russian spy.
Steve
February 20th, 2013
3:59 pm
Health insurance = better access to health care = finding diseases early = lower cost to treat them and the chances of a longer, healthier life.
period.
This
is
not
rocket
science
Dusty
February 20th, 2013
4:00 pm
Steve,
Most seniiors paid into social security their working lives. Medicare draws some from that source.
The president, congress and veterans get health benefits because they are serving or have served this country. THAT is appreciation for service above and beyond , ’specially for veterans.
I think there is a difference between appreciation for service and socialized medicine. One is for special service and the other is demanding treatment because you are a citizen. Our Constitution only guarantees us mainly the chance to be free people. More “demands” of government create less freedom.
Bruno
February 20th, 2013
4:03 pm
Yep it is a problem…of course to address it you got to talk sense into the “death panel” loons that made this whole process a great deal more complicated.
JDW–On this point, we are in complete agreement. Medicare studies have shown that a high percentage of health care dollars spent over the course of a lifetime typically come during “end of life” care.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/11/pf/end-of-life-care-duplicate-2.moneymag/index.html
Assisting people to quit smoking, teaching people how to eat healthier, encouraging forms of exercise, medications that lower cholesterol, colorectal screenings – none of these are worth it. Skip all of your physicals and hope for the best! That’s the Republican way.
Keep dreaming, Steve. Responsibility for our own behavior lies within the individual. And, as md pointed out above, epidemiological studies typically show no difference in those who spend a lot of money on various “screenings”, including colonoscopies and PSA testing, and those who don’t. Once again, our health depends primarily upon our lifestyle, not on how much money we’re spending on unnecessary tests.
MANGLER
February 20th, 2013
4:03 pm
You do realize the “you can keep it” thing applied to personal insurance plans right, and not necessarily employer provided plans. Who has those? The employers typically, not employees.
In your example of Universal, the mini-med plans are being dropped because they will no longer be able to offer such jokes. Really, I can pay for insurance that won’t even cover an anesthesiologist, let alone a surgeon? Wow, losing that piece of crap “option” is really going to hurt people! Employees who have such plans will be destroyed financially should they ever actually have a real emergency and realize what a joke their level of coverage actually is.
As for all the companies who will drop coverage options once the dominoes start falling … that’s going to cause the people opting for Federally funded plans to surge tremendously – which was kind of the point from the get-go. Private insurance isn’t doing anything to curb cost increases in the least since it’s not in their best financial interest to make sure people are healthier and use doctors and medications less often. The Government, on the other hand, stands to benefit substantially from a system that places preventative care and actual health above profits. Got it yet?
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 20th, 2013
4:05 pm
indie’s “proof”
Living creatures must come from other living creatures. It does no damage to this point to claim that life must have had some origin way back in time, perhaps in a chemical reaction of inorganic materials (in some primordial soup) or in some invasion from outer space.
Where’d the primordial soup come from?
Here again, the evidence from fossils is overwhelming. In the deepest rock layers, there are no signs of life. The first fossil remains are of very simple living things. As the strata get more recent, the variety and complexity of life increase (although not at a uniform rate). And no human fossils have ever been found except in the most superficial layers of the earth (e.g., battlefields, graveyards, flood deposits, and so on).
So we should have an orderly procession of fossils detailing each stage of this evolution, from the soup right on to Aunt Emma.
Still.
Waiting.
Rafe Hollister preparing for an Obamanist America
February 20th, 2013
4:06 pm
What would be truly eye opening to the Social Security participants is if we assigned the contributors to pay the recipients individually. Each recipient would be assigned two contributors.
Could you imagine a little old lady driving around in her Mercedes to get her monthly share from the kid spreading pine straw for TrueGreen or some landscape company. She would then get to drive to some big corporation and get the big share from the executive making the big bucks. Sure would make her think about where the money came from.
Steve
February 20th, 2013
4:07 pm
What does matter — and this matters both for prevention and treatment services — is value: the health benefit per dollar invested.
Preventive services are worth it if they improve health at a relatively low cost. The way we control health care spending is by moving our money from expensive low-value services — both treatment and prevention — to more cost-effective (NOT cost-saving) high-value interventions. Fewer expensive drugs that extend life a week or a month; more proven early interventions that can extend life for years or decades.
Yes, prevention does not save money. But effective preventive care, like effective treatments, needs to be a part of a reformed health care system.
Aquagirl
February 20th, 2013
4:08 pm
I don’t think calling your Aunt Emma a fossil is very nice.
Dusty
February 20th, 2013
4:09 pm
Aw, come on, AQUAGIRL, we know you were already cracked.. Now hush. I’m into preaching today and I haven’t even gotten to the Re-SO-lution of E-VO-lu-tio n……..
Dusty
February 20th, 2013
4:11 pm
Steve,
“reformed healthcare system”?
I think we need to reform liberals, not healthcare.
retiredds
February 20th, 2013
4:13 pm
I’m curious, how many firms in GA offer, even limited, health care plans to part-time employees? I know several people who work part time and not one of them is covered by health insurance and they don’t expect to be.
Bruno
February 20th, 2013
4:14 pm
That proof already exists.
It lies in molecular biology and the fossil record.
It requires a considerable amount of learning in these subjects to fully understand the proof, at least a Masters degree.
indigo–Let me break it down for you. There is no doubt that species change over time in response to environmental changes. No one disputes that. And obviously, a species which adapts to a changing environment has a much better chance of surviving.
The debate regarding “Evolution” is exactly how this occurs. The prevailing theory is that somehow “random genetic mutations” are the mechanism through which adaptation occurs. Yet, there is absolutely no proof that this is true. None whatsoever. In fact, virtually every “random genetic mutation” leads to harm to the individual. To believe that a few lucky lightning strikes here or there is what has led to this beautifully orchestrated world is, in a word, stupid.
The fact is that the various adaptations that we observe in Nature are very specific, and occur in a time frame which is too fast to be dependent upon a few lucky mutations. If you wish to educate yourself instead of your repeated blind Appeals to Authority, you may wish to learn more about epigenome research:
http://epi.grants.cancer.gov/epigen.html
md
February 20th, 2013
4:16 pm
“Health insurance = better access to health care = finding diseases early = lower cost to treat them and the chances of a longer, healthier life.”
Steve…..you can give one insurance, but you can’t force them to use it.
What part of that are you a having a hard time with?
We provide education for 100% of individuals, yet only 70% use it…..
I can’t make it any clearer…..
Michael H. Smith
February 20th, 2013
4:16 pm
Kyle, we’ve known from the beginning that the intent of obumercare was to usher in single-payer national-socialist healthcare system.
The people you are trying to convince will never believe it until it happens and the few of them who know it shall, for them it can’t happen soon enough.
It’s still too early for you to blog on… “I told you so.”
MarkV
February 20th, 2013
4:18 pm
What people like Kyle, Dusty and others like them cannot seem to realize is that health care is unlike any other product or service. When people do not have enough money to spend, they can go without large-screen TV or iPads, without going to Braves game, as long they have enough to eat and a roof above their heads, plus a few other necessities. But being sick or injured is a matter of real suffering or death.
When there are people who cannot afford the treatment and could not afford health insurance, there are only two alternatives. Either they get the treatment and other people pay for it, or they suffer or die. Letting poor people to be without health insurance thus means either to turn a blind eye to their suffering, or to let others pay for them. Since nobody can predict an illness or injury, and even if one could, there is only one equitable way of taking care of sick and injured: To spread the cost of insurance to that part of the whole population that can afford to pay, and subsidize it for those who cannot.
To claim that the US had, before Obamacare, “the best healthcare in the world” is a sick joke. It had the best care in the world for those who could pay for it. The talk about SOCIALIST healthcare is just an expression of a total ignorance of the words used. People who talk about a loss of freedom because of universal healthcare are people who do not care.
Fortunately, as I wrote before, once people realize the positive features of ObamaCare, they will never want to go back. Obamacare will be improved to fix the deficiencies, or a single payer system will eventually be instituted.
Bruno
February 20th, 2013
4:18 pm
Unbelievable. Anyone who works in health care that would read this tripe would just roll their eyes in disbelief.
I’ve worked in health care for nearly 27 years now. How about you??
Health insurance = better access to health care = finding diseases early = lower cost to treat them and the chances of a longer, healthier life.
There is no realistic lack of access to health care in this country. You’re only making yourself look stupid to repeat this garbage. The problem is cost, not access.
indigo
February 20th, 2013
4:19 pm
Bruno
You didn’t answer my 3:37.
Do you consider my siding with Nobel Prize winning scientists “blind appeals to authority”?
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 20th, 2013
4:19 pm
Not too mention, there is no evidence in any invertabrates alive today that they have the capabilities to generate their own skeletons. Nothing.
What if I decided to grow wings and fly instead of taking Delta? Would this not be beneficial to my species? MY BODY IS WHOLLY INCAPABLE OF DOING IT EVEN IF I WANTED TO.
Still.
Waiting.
indigo
February 20th, 2013
4:22 pm
Aesop
The primordial soup came from water in the Earth’s rocks, comets and asteroids which brought a rich chemistry to the oceans.
The first life on Earth left NO fossil record.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 20th, 2013
4:23 pm
indie – Where did the water in the Earth’s rocks, comets and asteroids come from?
curious
February 20th, 2013
4:24 pm
Anybody able to explain this?
“Monaco has the highest life expectancy in the world at 89.68 years
Chad has the lowest level of life expectancy at 48.69 years
America ranks 51st in the table with 78.49 years, while the United Kingdom comes in 30th at 80.17 years”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2240855/How-does-nation-rank-world-map-life-expectancy.html#ixzz2LTcCaxks
Why are we number 51 if our healthcare system is so great?
Aquagirl
February 20th, 2013
4:24 pm
“Beautifully orchestrated world?” Has this guy ever been camping?
indigo
February 20th, 2013
4:26 pm
Bruno
For you.
Not that it will do any good as you seem to already know all there is to know.
http://www.proof-of-evolution.com/theory-of-evolution.html
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 20th, 2013
4:27 pm
Anybody able to explain this?
Chicago’s gang bangers. Check your own data, tool.
indigo
February 20th, 2013
4:30 pm
Aesop
As our Sun was forming, it had, on it’s outside, a disk. This disk contained, among other things, Hydrogen and Oxygen. As rocks formed from this disk, the Oxygen and Hydrogen molecules combined to make H2O(water) and this, in turn, combined with the rocks.
Comets also formed out of the gas and dust and became what some scientists call “dirty snowballs”. These comets also contained generous amounts of Methane and Ammonia. In the oceans, these formed into ammino acids, the building blocks of life.
Steve
February 20th, 2013
4:31 pm
And people wonder why Americans have become more and more disgusted with corporate greed, including this and CEO’s walking away with 12 million dollar bonuses after their company is bailed out by the government.
Michael H. Smith
February 20th, 2013
4:32 pm
Total ignorance is the ignoramuses that try to deny socialism is socialism.
Steve
February 20th, 2013
4:32 pm
Ahm, Bruno – cost hinders access. For many. For millions.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 20th, 2013
4:36 pm
Mutations: these are errors in the genetic code that occur by chance because reproduction in nature is never perfect.
Natural selection: this is the process by which nature weeds out mutations that negatively affect survival and preserves those that help survival (or reproduction).
indie – The only thing this proves is that you must be some sort of freak.
Still.
Waiting.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 20th, 2013
4:37 pm
I guess I’ve now learned it all, self awareness was a genetic mutation, hahahahaha, just kidding.
Michael H. Smith
February 20th, 2013
4:42 pm
So cost hinders access?
And the best way to remove hindrance is to have the federal government use its’ unlimited police powers to FORCE cost controls by setting the prices for services, products and selecting who receives what care or what amount thereof?
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 20th, 2013
4:43 pm
One day on planet moonbat, a little baby ape woke up and said “why is my dad up in the tree? Why don’t he get a job? I think, therefore, I am. I will form a government and it will provide for me. I will never have to wonder where my next condom is coming from. Oh wait, I’m a female. I can fix that. Anyone got a knife? Wait a minute, I haven’t invented the knife yet. Geez.”
Michael H. Smith
February 20th, 2013
4:44 pm
And the best way to remove hindrance is to have the federal government use its’ unlimited police powers to FORCE cost controls by setting the prices for services, products and selecting who receives what care or what amount thereof?
Of course this is not fascist or socialist… NAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
It’s both!
curious
February 20th, 2013
4:45 pm
Aesop’s Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 20th, 2013
4:27 pm
Anybody able to explain this?
“Chicago’s gang bangers. Check your own data, tool.”
You advocating gun control?
Dusty
February 20th, 2013
4:50 pm
MarkV
I am not totally ignorant of our healthcare system as I have worked in it for many years. Laboratory medicine that is.
I appreciate your kind feelings but I don’t believe you know what is available to people with little or no money. Have you ever heard of Medicaid? Of PeachCare? Of free clinics? Of Grady Hospital? Of ER regulations? Of church foundations for aid? Or funds budgeted for “charity” in; most hospitals? Or places like St. Judes? Even state and county facilities (not Federal) of all kinds run by the people who live there? The list goes on.
True, the latest and most thorough treatments are usually expensive. So much that no one or system can afford them for everyone who needs them. That’s a sad reality that won’t change with ObamaCare. Nor will it rule out death or change the statistics of death and there will still be sick people who live under bridges whether we like it or not.
We give high standard healthcare in the USA. What you want without realization is the fact that you will sacrifice good medicine for mediocre healthcare. I don’t think lowering our standards is the way to go. Try to think of something better than socialized medicine. Don’t trade your Rolls Royce for a KIA.
Liberal Pariah
February 20th, 2013
4:52 pm
I’m a Southern Baptist and indigo has more faith than I do. To believe that something came from nothing is fantasy of the highest sort.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
February 20th, 2013
4:54 pm
You advocating gun control?
No, liberal control.
indigo
February 20th, 2013
4:59 pm
Liberal
Mathematical Physics says that something really can come from nothing.
So, I guess you must believe Mathematical Physics is fantasy.
Right?
indigo
February 20th, 2013
5:00 pm
Aesop – 4:36
I’ve done all I can for you, boy.
If you insist on going thru life mired in ignorance, that’s your decision.
Bruno
February 20th, 2013
5:08 pm
indigo: Not that it will do any good as you seem to already know all there is to know.
As expected, you didn’t even read your own link. There is no proof the genetic mutations lead to intelligent adaptation on the site, anywhere. Primarily because such proof doesn’t exist, anywhere. Basically, it is an anti-Creationist site, in keeping with your own created false dichotomy that anyone who questions junk Science must be some kind of religious nut.
Mathematical Physics says that something really can come from nothing.
So, I guess you must believe Mathematical Physics is fantasy.
indigo–I debunked that misstatement over the weekend.
Unless you can show me some kind of intelligent thought on this blog, I’m going to have to ignore you from here on out. I’ve given you chance after chance to demonstrate that you understand the nuts and bolts of your claims, but you don’t. Your pretty much a parrot of the worst kind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority
MarkV
February 20th, 2013
5:12 pm
Dusty @ 4:50 pm
Dusty,
Is it so difficult to comprehend what I have written? “When there are people who cannot afford the treatment and could not afford health insurance, there are only two alternatives. Either they get the treatment and other people pay for it, or they suffer or die.” Now you are telling me about ”what is available to people with little or no money.” What is common to EVERYTHING on your list? OTHER PEOPLE PAY FOR IT. Just what I wrote. But do you want to claim that what you listed is the most efficient way of doing it?
And please, stop that nonsense about SOCIALISM and “socialized medicine.” Why do people think that putting a label on something proves anything? Nobody I know here is advocating socialized medicine. If you want to claim they had, please define what socialized medicine means to you.
Also, if you complain about “loss of freedom,” please explain what freedom you lose if there is universal health insurance.
Dusty
February 20th, 2013
5:13 pm
Let’s put INDIGO on a meteorite
And send her where the sun is bright.
When she comes back
She’ll cry ALas & Alack!
Such studies do give me duh-light!
WAR EAGLE
February 20th, 2013
5:20 pm
If obama was really serious about his job (yeah right-he wants to be Emperor in charge) he would have nationwide competition among the insurance companies. He would also allow the pipeline to come thru and employ thousands of americans and help lower gas prices. But no, he is an environmentalist Muslim who wants to put us in the eighth century, be like europe- bankrupt and be the emperor.
Michael H. Smith
February 20th, 2013
5:25 pm
People with little or no money receive healthcare treatment all the time for little or no charge. Dusty and I are right. This non-sense that it is Federal single-payer socialized medicine or nothing is idiotic garbage.
JDW
February 20th, 2013
5:25 pm
@Dusty…”I’m surprised that the near thousands of people you directed (as you once told us) did not find you a ;better insurance company or a better doctor. Maybe you should look up Bruno.”
Why you are correct. I have had the pleasure of leading two 1000+ person organizations, one in the US and one in Europe. Most of those folks, like you apparently, did not understand that in the American health care system a cash payer is charged quite a bit more than an insured person. See the insurance companies negotiate the rates while the self insured pay full price.
Bruno
February 20th, 2013
5:26 pm
Now you are telling me about ”what is available to people with little or no money.” What is common to EVERYTHING on your list? OTHER PEOPLE PAY FOR IT. Just what I wrote. But do you want to claim that what you listed is the most efficient way of doing it?
Ding, ding, ding. MarkV finally caught on that poor people don’t pay for their own health care. Maybe he’ll make the leap of imagination to understand that nothing will change under Obamacare except for the price tag (much higher) and with far less efficiency due to the one-size-fits-all insurance plans that we’re all going to be paying for.
Ahm, Bruno – cost hinders access. For many. For millions.
Absolutely, Steve. The PriceWaterhouseCooper study I linked above estimates that more than one half of the health care dollars we spend are spent unnecessarily. I would think that an intelligent person would look at this study and attempt to get the waste out of the system. A stupid person looks for more ways to keep funding the waste.
JDW
February 20th, 2013
5:27 pm
@Rafe…”Wealth transfer between the groups should not be automatic, as it is.”
In 1932 you had a point…today the vast majority of those covered by Social Security are collecting on an investment made over thier working lifetime.
Michael H. Smith
February 20th, 2013
5:29 pm
Yeah and non-government mutual healthcare CO-OPs do a better job of negotiating rates than for their members than those of profit insurance companies.
JDW
February 20th, 2013
5:30 pm
@Bruno…“consumer indifference”
True enough. Now if you want to say the American consumer should better understand the costs involved in health care so they can make decsions accordingly I agree. In fact my preferred solution would be a Single Payer basic program supplimented by either additional insurance or self funded extras.