HEADLINES

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Next ObamaCare Casualty – McDonald’s Employees

Who couldn't see this coming? (h/t Gateway Pundit)

Coverage of 1.2 million people with mini-policies is under threat of health care reform claims Stuart Varney, anchor of "Varney & Co.", as he tries to unweave the contradictions coming from McDonald's and the White House after this morning's Wall Street Journal bombshell revelation that McDonald fast food giant "could cut plans for 30,000 workers."

"Here's the story. The Wall Street Journal has gotten hold of a letter, written by McDonald's to the authorities in Washington about health care. That letter says and I'm quoting,"

It would be economically prohibitive for our carrier to continue offering coverage.

"That's to the 30,000 McDonald employees who get this low-cost low-coverage right now. McDonald's is saying economically – not good – with the health care act in place. McDonalds this morning turns around and says – 'False story! Not true; we're not considering dropping coverage. Health and Human Services turns around this morning and says, 'The story is wrong.'

Those two denials leave out the fact that this letter was written and McDonald's is saying under health care reform, the way it's written, we can't afford to keep on giving this coverage."

Varney noted that McDonald's denies the whole thing but I'm not sure how they will deny the existence of this letter. It's obvious. This is what Obama wanted. He WANTS to make it so that a company is forced to drop their plans then those people will then be forced into the government run plan….and ta-da! Socialized health care.

Trade groups representing restaurants and retailers say low-wage employers might halt their coverage if the government doesn't loosen a requirement for "mini-med" plans, which offer limited benefits to some 1.4 million Americans.

"Mini-med" are plans covering routine checkups and other such low cost issues. Perfect for the young who are typically very healthy. The Wall Street Journal reports a McDonald's employee could pay 14 bucks a week for the 2 grand max payout version or 32 bucks for the 10 grand max payout version. For a kid typically in his first job this is quite a deal. But as we all know, lower paying first jobs have a huge turnover rate. ObamaCare mandates that a company must spend at least 80/85% of its premium revenue on medical care and that is just not economically viable for a company such as McDonalds with its huge turnover rate.

McDonald's and trade groups say the percentage, called a medical loss ratio, is unrealistic for mini-med plans because of high administrative costs owing to frequent worker turnover, combined with relatively low spending on claims.

McDonalds wants a exemption but Obama and pals won't give it since their goal was to get all these young folks into the Government plans to subsidize the costs of all those older folks with pre-existing conditions that will now be covered by the Government.

Yeah…..You like it you can keep it:

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has notified customers that it will drop its Medicare Advantage health insurance program at the end of the year, forcing 22,000 senior citizens in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine to seek alternative supplemental coverage.

The decision by Wellesley-based Harvard Pilgrim, the state's second-largest health insurer, was prompted by a freeze in federal reimbursements and a new requirement that insurers offering the kind of product sold by Harvard Pilgrim — a Medicare Advantage private fee for service plan — form a contracted network of doctors who agree to participate for a negotiated amount of money. Under current rules, patients can seek care from any doctor.

"We became concerned by the long-term viability of Medicare Advantage programs in general,'' said Lynn Bowman, vice president of customer service at Harvard Pilgrim's office in Quincy. "We know that cuts in Medicare are being used to fund national health care reform. And we also had concerns about our ability to build a network of health care providers that would meet the needs of our seniors.''

Who knows which big corporation will be the next domino to fall but fall they will. And then we move closer to Obama's main objective from the beginning.

Single-payer.

Socialism.








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