Flood of Businesses and Schools Across America Workers’ Cutting Hours – But White House Calls This Anecdotal
"Of course Obamacare is going to be a mess. We said it would be. It already is. . . . this is a law that’s still being implemented. And that many businesses already seem to be firing people? . . . So, if this is a law that’s ‘working the way it’s supposed to,’ [as the president said,] then it’s a bad law. And it’s Congress’ duty to repeal bad laws." ~ Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), June 20. 2013
The flood of stories of stories about the negative impacts of Obamacare is beginning to look more like a deluge, despite the White House’s insistence that these problems all across the country are “anecdotal.”
NBC News reports today, “Employers around the country, from fast-food franchises to colleges, have told NBC News that they will be cutting workers’ hours below 30 a week because they can’t afford to offer the health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. ‘To tell somebody that you’ve got to decrease their hours because of a law passed in Washington is very frustrating to me,’ said Loren Goodridge, who owns 21 Subway franchises, including a restaurant in Kennebunk. ‘I know the impact I’m having on some of my employees.’ Goodridge said he’s cutting the hours of 50 workers to no more than 29 a week so he won’t trigger the provision in the new health care law that requires employers to offer coverage to employees who work 30 hours or more per week. The provision takes effect in 16 months. . . . The White House dismisses such examples as ‘anecdotal.’ . . . But the president of an influential union that supports Obamacare said the White House is wrong. ‘It IS happening,’ insisted Joseph Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has 1.2 million members. ‘Wait a year. You'll see tremendous impact as workers have their hours reduced and their incomes reduced. The facts are already starting to show up. Their statistics, I think, are a little behind the time.’”
Indeed, “NBC News spoke with almost 20 small businesses and other entities from Maine to California, and almost all said that because of the new law they’d be cutting back hours for some employees – an unintended consequence of the new law. At St. Petersburg College, a public university in Florida where most of the faculty is part-time, 250 have had their hours reduced for the fall term because the college said it can’t afford to offer them health insurance. St Petersburg’s president, Dr. Bill Law, said providing health care for the 250 adjunct professors would cost more than $777,000 dollars a year. ‘The cost associated with making a part-timer benefits-eligible really is not available to us as a public college,’ said Law.”
Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes, “On Oct. 1, small business owners have to let their employees know whether they will provide health insurance for their staff in the coming year. The problem? Details about the plans that insurers intend to offer probably won't be available until Oct. 1. ‘In other words, we have to make a decision without having all the information,’ said one exasperated business owner at a Tuesday seminar hosted by the U.S. Small Business Association and the Duquesne University Small Business Development Center at the university. . . . Even something seemingly as simple as determining how many full-time equivalent employees they have is not a simple calculation under the regulations, said [Carl Knoblock, SBA's Western Pennsylvania district manager]. . . . Despite all the uncertainties, Mr. Knoblock, a former small business owner himself, also knows how worrisome and erratic the employee health benefit issue has been for small firms over the years. Only one thing seemed certain: Rates were going to go up every renewal period. ‘If you had a good year, it was 8 percent and if you had a bad year, it would have been over 20 percent,’ he said. ‘Business owners want to provide for employees, but at that point they have to stay in business.’”
And Reuters notes, “Hit by years of budget cuts, some U.S. public school boards are looking to avoid providing health benefits to substitute teachers and supporting staff under President Barack Obama's reform law, education officials say. . . . School boards, already struggling to manage after years of state budget cuts, are trying to get ahead of the potential costs of Obamacare for the current academic year, education and labor officials say. The need to find creative solutions, or risk cutting back staff hours further, will increase as they finalize their budgets, they say. In Pennsylvania's Penn Manor School District, Superintendent Mike Leichliter said there is no room in its constrained budget to provide additional employee insurance. . . . ‘When we looked at our costs, (healthcare) was one area that really had the potential to skyrocket,’ Leichliter said. ‘This is absolutely the worst time for school districts to be faced with mandated increases.’ The National School Board Association said many states and school districts have at least explored reducing hours, according to Linda Embrey, a communications officer. Several school officials contacted by Reuters said they could not find a way around cuts. In Indiana's Fort Wayne Community Schools district, one of the state's largest, administrators reduced hours for 610 of its 4,050 employees, including substitute teachers and support staff, who were working 30 or more hours a week. Providing them with health insurance would have cost $10 million annually, said Krista Stockman, public information officer for Fort Wayne.”
And somehow all of this is simply “anecdotal” evidence to the Obama administration. Remember what NBC News wrote: “NBC News spoke with almost 20 small businesses and other entities from Maine to California, and almost all said that because of the new law they’d be cutting back hours for some employees . . . .” But that’s apparently “anecdotal.”
Tags: confused, Obamacare, businesses, schools, cutting hours, workers, lower pay, White House, Anecdotal To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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NBC News reports today, “Employers around the country, from fast-food franchises to colleges, have told NBC News that they will be cutting workers’ hours below 30 a week because they can’t afford to offer the health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. ‘To tell somebody that you’ve got to decrease their hours because of a law passed in Washington is very frustrating to me,’ said Loren Goodridge, who owns 21 Subway franchises, including a restaurant in Kennebunk. ‘I know the impact I’m having on some of my employees.’ Goodridge said he’s cutting the hours of 50 workers to no more than 29 a week so he won’t trigger the provision in the new health care law that requires employers to offer coverage to employees who work 30 hours or more per week. The provision takes effect in 16 months. . . . The White House dismisses such examples as ‘anecdotal.’ . . . But the president of an influential union that supports Obamacare said the White House is wrong. ‘It IS happening,’ insisted Joseph Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has 1.2 million members. ‘Wait a year. You'll see tremendous impact as workers have their hours reduced and their incomes reduced. The facts are already starting to show up. Their statistics, I think, are a little behind the time.’”
Indeed, “NBC News spoke with almost 20 small businesses and other entities from Maine to California, and almost all said that because of the new law they’d be cutting back hours for some employees – an unintended consequence of the new law. At St. Petersburg College, a public university in Florida where most of the faculty is part-time, 250 have had their hours reduced for the fall term because the college said it can’t afford to offer them health insurance. St Petersburg’s president, Dr. Bill Law, said providing health care for the 250 adjunct professors would cost more than $777,000 dollars a year. ‘The cost associated with making a part-timer benefits-eligible really is not available to us as a public college,’ said Law.”
Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes, “On Oct. 1, small business owners have to let their employees know whether they will provide health insurance for their staff in the coming year. The problem? Details about the plans that insurers intend to offer probably won't be available until Oct. 1. ‘In other words, we have to make a decision without having all the information,’ said one exasperated business owner at a Tuesday seminar hosted by the U.S. Small Business Association and the Duquesne University Small Business Development Center at the university. . . . Even something seemingly as simple as determining how many full-time equivalent employees they have is not a simple calculation under the regulations, said [Carl Knoblock, SBA's Western Pennsylvania district manager]. . . . Despite all the uncertainties, Mr. Knoblock, a former small business owner himself, also knows how worrisome and erratic the employee health benefit issue has been for small firms over the years. Only one thing seemed certain: Rates were going to go up every renewal period. ‘If you had a good year, it was 8 percent and if you had a bad year, it would have been over 20 percent,’ he said. ‘Business owners want to provide for employees, but at that point they have to stay in business.’”
And Reuters notes, “Hit by years of budget cuts, some U.S. public school boards are looking to avoid providing health benefits to substitute teachers and supporting staff under President Barack Obama's reform law, education officials say. . . . School boards, already struggling to manage after years of state budget cuts, are trying to get ahead of the potential costs of Obamacare for the current academic year, education and labor officials say. The need to find creative solutions, or risk cutting back staff hours further, will increase as they finalize their budgets, they say. In Pennsylvania's Penn Manor School District, Superintendent Mike Leichliter said there is no room in its constrained budget to provide additional employee insurance. . . . ‘When we looked at our costs, (healthcare) was one area that really had the potential to skyrocket,’ Leichliter said. ‘This is absolutely the worst time for school districts to be faced with mandated increases.’ The National School Board Association said many states and school districts have at least explored reducing hours, according to Linda Embrey, a communications officer. Several school officials contacted by Reuters said they could not find a way around cuts. In Indiana's Fort Wayne Community Schools district, one of the state's largest, administrators reduced hours for 610 of its 4,050 employees, including substitute teachers and support staff, who were working 30 or more hours a week. Providing them with health insurance would have cost $10 million annually, said Krista Stockman, public information officer for Fort Wayne.”
And somehow all of this is simply “anecdotal” evidence to the Obama administration. Remember what NBC News wrote: “NBC News spoke with almost 20 small businesses and other entities from Maine to California, and almost all said that because of the new law they’d be cutting back hours for some employees . . . .” But that’s apparently “anecdotal.”
Tags: confused, Obamacare, businesses, schools, cutting hours, workers, lower pay, White House, Anecdotal To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 1:42 PM - Post Link
1 Comments:
Obamacare, Obama, and his administration are ALL TOTALLY DESTRUCTIVE to our country!! Why in the world don't Americans wake up and do something about all of this. If the Rhino Republican Senators won't support defunding Obamacare, they MUST be sent home for good!! God help us!!
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