The consequences of the Democrats’ health care takeover begin to be felt:
Remember the part in the ObamaCare pitch when they said if you like your current healthcare, it won’t change?
Turns out it might.
Companies are already announcing that their healthcare premium costs are going through the roof. Some are responding by firing people. Some are cutting benefits. And some are presumably eating it.
But costs they are a-rising.
Examples include Caterpillar, which said Obamacare will cost it an additional $100 million in the first year; Medtronic, which warned that the new tax on its products “could force it to lay off a thousand workers;” and Verizon, which has told its employees that it “will likely have to cut healthcare benefits to offset the new costs.”
Here’s one more:
AT&T on Friday said it will record a $1 billion non-cash expense in the first quarter related to the newly passed health-care law, joining a growing list of large U.S. companies. …
Among its many changes, the new health-care law eliminated a tax deduction that companies used to cut the cost of drug-benefit programs for retired workers. … companies that still offer retiree drug benefits, mostly older industrial concerns or those with unionized employees, say the end of the deduction could force them to alter their benefit plans. In other words, they might curtail or even cancel them.
“As a result of this legislation, including the additional tax burden, AT&T will be evaluating prospective changes to the active and retiree health care benefits offered by the company,” AT&T said in a filing with the government on Friday.
Conclusion:
So, people who like your employer-provided health insurance, get ready to pay more or get less.
So Obamacare will contribute to higher unemployment as well as worse and more expensive health care. My only question is: where were all of these companies when the Democrats’ takeover plan was being debated?
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