Posted on 09/01/2010 4:00:01 PM PDT by TwoOverhill
For 15 years, I have taken pride in paying the full cost of health insurance for every full-time Palisades Hudson employee who wanted it. This month marks the last time I will do that. Beginning in October, our 20 employees will make their own decisions, and their own arrangements, regarding health coverage.[...]When they wrote this year’s legislation, policymakers had a choice: They could emphasize near-universal coverage, or they could emphasize controlling costs. They opted for near-universal coverage. As a result, business owners and higher income Americans (many of whom, like me, are one and the same) will soon pay an array of higher taxes to finance the broader coverage that President Obama and congressional Democrats mandated...
(Excerpt) Read more at palisadeshudson.com ...
Objective achieved.
The timing of the benefits allowed the Democrats MORE MONEY TO HAND OUT NOW, while expecting THE MESSIAH would be re-elected in 2012, and not have to explain the hammerdrop that will occur in 2014.
And so it begins.
More to come. This was their objective when they wrote the law. Destroy private insurance and force everyone onto the government version, which will take money from those who work hard for it, and give it to those who vote democrat.
“And so it begins.”
That was exactly the phrase that entered my mind when I read the headline.
An employer can pay whatever he\she wants.
somehow, in this case, somethings not right about calling $3000 a raise.
Another heartless, evil capitalist exposed. He just doesn’t care about the little people. Where would we be without Obama to take care of us?
Workers are not “entitled” to health insurance from their employers. The workplace is not a health care supermarket. One good reason that health care costs keep going out of sight is that too many people have health insurance and pay nothing (or next to nothing) for their care.
That's right. How dare this evil, rich, capitalist refuse to pay the 20 - 50% rise in the cost of health care insurance since the passage of Obamacare. Why, he should be drawn and quartered. We need our politicians to put a stop to this pronto. This guy should be put out of business right now!
The reason is lack of competition between insurance companies
and between hospitals and clinics.
RomneyCARE and ObamaCARE both make it worse.
[welcome to FR]
I didn’t even read this article. I don’t need to in order to know we are SCREWED. The sheeple have no idea what is coming their way and they will not until sometime in April of 2012. By then the destruction will be complete.
The elections of November will do no good. It will only continue our death by a thousand cuts. We can’t afford to wait for reversal by incrementalism. I doubt we would get that.
Nothing short of a decisive action will resolve anything.
America has lost its way. We are firmly in the ditch with no easy way out. Wholesale repeal and reconstruction are the only solution. No real solution will make anybody happy in the short term. Adult decisions are hard.
Y’all let me know when you are ready to do something that will make a difference. Until then we are just pissing in the wind.
Hey Walt! You just signed on yesterday! You appear to be one of Obozocare’s Boot Lackeys! Are You paid by Obozo and Co.?
I totally disagree.
Tying health care benefits to employment (which happened during WW2 as a means of overcoming wage controls) is a huge mistake.
Has it occurred to you that, heretofore, the employer's cost for health insurance was in the neighborhood of $3000?
Essentially, the cost got doubled by the "Affordable Healthcare Act" and the employer decided to drop the coverage, but graciously give the employees what he'd been paying to this point.
Mr. Elkins has acted as a responsible and compassionate employer, to the degree he could afford to do so. Why denigrate him?
Hmmm, wonder if this will make the MSM?
I hope Obama throws him into the Gulag for the rest of his life and sells his children into slavery. The gall of these evil small business owners - look at the wonders that the government and the unions have done for GM in just a few short months. All of these small businesses need to be seized by the government and turned over to the SEIU. That will teach them to try to earn a profit.
:) funny guy.
I’m guessing more employers, especially smalll business are going to go this route.
Unless the Repubs take over Congress, I’m guessing the RATS will try to up the penalty, as now it’s cheaper for employers to pay the penalty than the insurance preimiums.
You are guessing right. They will do it because the government will give them no choice. Drop their health care coverage or go out of business. They will be painted as the bad guys, but what the government will deliver in return will have us all crying for the good old days.
Exactly...right from the start! So in the end the employee will bare the burden for the most part....actually it’s a bait and switch ploy...we will end up with Gov. Healthcare when all is said and done.
I agree...he could have simply stopped paying the insurance and not compensate at all. I appreciate his forthrightnesss as well.
Have been working in retail industry for last three months...who have always used part-time workers to avoid benefits. But now they work their part-timers up to 32-35 hours weekly and more but their “title” is part-time so they still avoid benefits. Additionally each department has just one full time employee...all others are part-time now.
He also said he will make salary adjustments to soften the blow.
Now he's calling a $3000 a year adjustment a raise. Somebody takes 6 grand out of one of one of my pockets and puts 3 grand in another, don't tell me I just got a 3 grand raise.
Whoa! I'm not aware of what he may have written in March. But, in this piece, he is saying that the NEW price of health insurance is $574 to $683/month. And, when that comes due, he is going to ask his employees to pay the full cost -- but he is granting a $250/mo raise to help defer the cost.
My takeaway is that a.) insurance costs essentially doubled (from, say, $287 to $342/mo to $575 to $683/mo), b.) employees will now have to absorb the full cost, but c.) he will provide a raise roughly equivalent to what the insurance previously cost him and which will amount to roughly half of the new premium.
Remember, as well, that the extra $250/mo will actually cost the employer a minimum of $288.75 after applying FICA -- which equates rather precisely to the $287/mo figure above. More, if there are other fringes attached.
So far as I can see, the employer has done everything he possibly can to ameliorate the employee's situation and hasn't obfuscated a whit.
Yep!
Next Stage, DEMOCRAT Spox: "See evil corporations refuse to pay for your healthcare so we must have a single payer system!"
And the Overton Window expands a little more and we move further down the slippery slope.
Socialists win again!
I’m a sole proprieter and just got the notice that my premiums are going up - over 20% next month. I told my wife not to worry - ‘cuz Mr. Obama will be giving us Free Health Care. (Well, at least for the colon cancer screening procedure. “Bend over and grab your ankles...”)
And the folks a few miles away at the Coca-Cola plant are picketing ‘cuz they don’t want to pay a $15 co-pay!
the link to the march article is in the September article at "wrote in this space in march"
and those premiums were for an individual plan.
anybody with a family plan had to pay the full amount of the family portion of the plan.
Check out the march article. The guy is consistent and I don't blame him a bit.
FreepRegards
Try here. In the second paragraph:
Beginning in October, our 20 employees will make their own decisions, and their own arrangements, regarding health coverage. They can stay on our company’s plan, but they will have to pay the entire cost – ranging from $574 to $683 per month – themselves, through payroll deductions.
Most corporate health insurance contracts run from October thru September.
And he's saying that beginning in October the monthly premiums will be $574 to $683/mo...and the employees will have to pay it themselves.
Upon review, he could've written this more clearly. But he's not a professional writer. And I'd wager he means that -- beginning in October -- the rate will be...and the employees will have to...
I still think you are reading it wrong.doesn’t say what you said.
here’s the march article
http://palisadeshudson.com/2010/03/ending-my-company’s-health-care-benefit/
I plead guilty. And throw myself on the mercy of the court.
I always thought the cost of premiums\healthcare would go down if each of us had to pay our, rather than employers footing all\some of the bill.
I'll probably never know for sure.
ObamaCare is going to make things interesting...but mostly not until 2014. ( Unless the Repubs can find some way to defang that beast)
And I’m guessing more employers are going to follow this guy's path.
FreepRegards
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