Health care costs for IBM employees to rise because of Obamacare

IBM Corporation | 10/25/2010 | Dilbert56

[Dilbert56]

Just received an e-mail from IBM HR about 2011 benefits:

You should be aware that health care cost increases for 2011 -- in addition to the normal inflationary trends -- also are affected by health care reform requirements, which affect both IBM and you. For example, raising the age for dependent coverage from age 23 to 26 contributes somewhat to higher costs for businesses, as we must now all extend coverage to greater numbers of young adults.

[Hoodat]

I think the new Republican congress should just defund it.

I think the new Republican Congress should just defund EVERYTHING!

[BobP]

The Rats are shovel-ready for the dust bin of history.

[Waco]

What’s the chance that the SCOTUS will declare it unconst?

[Greysard]

Oh, but we can keep the coverage we have - NOT.

You certainly can keep your existing coverage. But you may need to buy the insurance company first.

[FourPeas]

We’ve been told to expect our $87/paycheck health care insurance to be increased to approx. $200/paycheck. It’s a good thing Obamacare passed so we don’t have huge increases in our health care costs.....

[smokingfrog]

It’s happening everywhere.

Higher premiums and less coverage. Why do I feel like I’m getting ripped-off?

[Semperfiwife]

More and more physicians are opting OUT of Medicare. They have been opting out of Medi-Cal(Caid) for years. The only docs who accept it Medi-cal can barely speak English themselves. I still haven’t figured out how they pay their malpractice premiums with such pitiful reimbursement. They get less that $25 for an office visit. You would demand more than that for YOUR skills typing or filing or whatever when that figure has to be shared with an office staff and pay for an office and equipment, etal. I think they will make more as government employees and THEN they can treat you poorly with the full backing of the federal government. Will that eliminate trial lawyers when the doctors are defacto postal workers????

[Vince Ferrer]

This will only affect the cost of their American employees, not the Indians.

[DrC]

That’s a great graphic. Extending the car analogy, “you can keep the car you have...so long as you retrofit it with government-mandated super-safety bumpers, video-mirrors, automatic door-openers and run it on a special government-specified blend of fuel that will increase annual operating costs anywhere from 5 to 40% a year.”

The Catch-22 is that even if you don’t care for the official Uncle Sam version of your old car, you’ll have to drive it anyway due to a new mandate requiring everyone of driving age to own a car—whether they want it or not.

[freespirited]

The new RATcare law, major portions of which do not take effect until 2014.

[BfloGuy]

Hey! I like Edsels.

Couldn't you have used a Chevy Volt?

[FrankR]

Yes, Edsels have become collectible classics, but they weren't always so. I was a teenager when they first came out and they were a disaster for Ford. Edsels have always been to Ford what "Potatoe" was to Dan Quayle.

I could have picked from a list of failed in the marketplace products, but then someone would have came up and been a fan of "new Coke", or "the Gremlin", "the Pinto", or even the "Corvair", etc.

One thing about being a satirists, you're probably going to offend a lot of folks, and some you don't even mean to offend, but that's the name of the game.

I used your suggestion of the "Volt" in another cartoon, depecting a "lemon with wheels", and I got accosted by someone on this board for "demeaning the poor workers who make their living building Volts.".

But, my posters are satire as I see it and that will be understood by the majority of people who view them, so I have to be true to my ideas and convictions on that particular point.

I even did one COMBINING the Edsel and the Volt by putting an Edsel front end on a Volt - I actually thought it improved the looks of it...but, I got slammed because the "Volt" picture I used was an earlier prototype photo (which was all that available when I did the graphic) was not the actual "Volt" that made it to market.

But, if I stopped to consider every, single possible reason that someone in the universe MIGHT possiblybe offended, I'd never get anything done. And being a very NON-politically correct person and loving satire, I do what I do.

[peterp]

IBM does offer catastrophic coverage (high deductible plans).

I work for them and am enrolled in this plan.
I just got info on next years premiums and they are increasing 24% for me!

So, IBM does offer it, but it’s going WAY up in price.

[william clark]

Hey, it’s just like Obama promised. If you like your plan, you can keep it.

In a drawer with your other old, expired documents.