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Not-Too-Happy Meal: Diners Miffed Over Obamacare Surcharges
newsmax ^ | 10/7/14 | j blosser

Posted on 10/07/2014 12:16:13 PM PDT by bestintxas

Next time you eat out at a fancy restaurant, don't be surprised if, at the end of your meal, you spot an unfamiliar item on your tab — a surcharge to pay for Obamacare.

Diners at high-end restaurants such as Melisse, AOC, and a dozen others in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas have noticed a 3 percent surcharge for employee healthcare tacked on to their bills, and the Los Angeles Times reports that some of the customers are none too happy about it. One diner complained in an online blog, "It's basically management saying 'Obamacare made me do it.' If you want to offset costs, try turning up the thermostat. There's your 3%! Now please pay your workers' health insurance and hush."

Better get used to it. "Once it starts you are going to see other segments in the industry, whether coffee shops or ice cream shops, dip their toe in if they see it's manageable and customers do not revolt," Jot Condie of the California Restaurant Association told the Times.

Josh Loeb, co-owner of Milo & Olive and Rustic Canyon, told the Times, "We want our staff to have healthcare. It's not because we support Obama or don't support Obama, or are Democrats or are not Democrats."

Restaurants have considered increasing the price of menu items to pay the cost of providing healthcare, but this would not take into account rent and liability insurance, which would require increasing menu costs by more than 3 percent to make the same amount of money as a simple surcharge

(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 0carenightmare; aca; fastfood; obamacare; obamacarecosts; restaurants; restaurantsurcharge; surcharge
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To: Bubba_Leroy
Either way the customers are paying for it. I want everyone to know how much.

Precisely. By hiding the cost via withholding, the Feds have managed to confiscate untold trillions in wealth from the producer class. Can you imagine the reaction if ALL taxpayers had to write a quarterly or monthly check? Road use taxes (aka gasoline taxes) are hidden in the same way.

21 posted on 10/07/2014 12:34:28 PM PDT by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))
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To: bestintxas
The surcharge on your bill is great! It's letting people know exactly why the cost of their meal is going up. It's honesty in action - the alternative is just more inflationary pressure as prices rise but nobody knows exactly why they are rising.

Obamacare is a drag on all commerce and the people should be told about it everyday.

22 posted on 10/07/2014 12:34:45 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

“You might want to bite the bullet and take one for the team. “

No thanks, but will decline to visit any who do this.

“I wish gas stations would post the amount of tax per gallon of gasoline.’

Me too. It would become crystal clear to those who fillup who gets the money they are spending. Oil companies get pennies per gallon while the govt gets much much more, using the oil companies as tax collectors.

BTW, the gas pump is an excellent place for advertisements. I used to make up lots of stickers and place them on the pump for the next guys to see that said things like “Like the price per gallon you are paying for gas? Thank a Democrat.”


23 posted on 10/07/2014 12:36:23 PM PDT by bestintxas (Every time a RINO bites the dust a founding father gets his wings)
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To: SMARTY

“I already paid for MY health care (and NO ONE HELPED ME)... now YOU pay for YOURS!”

So the business should go out of business instead of
raising it’s prices or you just don’t want to see it.
Are you one of those people who think all business
owners are rich and they should all have to absorb the
extra expense?


24 posted on 10/07/2014 12:37:43 PM PDT by Slambat
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To: SoConPubbie

Unless they inform me of this prior to ordering they had better take it off my bill.

And if they inform me of it prior to ordering I will go elsewhere.

There is no law that requires me to pay this surcharge.


25 posted on 10/07/2014 12:38:23 PM PDT by rfreedom4u (Texas isn't just a state. It's a state of mind!)
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To: bestintxas

I don’t have a problem with them putting the surcharge on the ticket, it’s certainly less “underhanded” than merely upping prices. But for those thinking that listing will cause some sort of anti-Obamacare rebellion need to look at their phone bills. When people rebel against the Spanish-American war tax I’ll believe there’s a possibility of people rebelling against the Obamacare surcharge.


26 posted on 10/07/2014 12:39:44 PM PDT by discostu (We don't leave the ladies crying cause the story's sad.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

“if they just raised their prices across the board 3% nobody would know. “yup, just inflation and higher costs of doing business.”

people’d pay and not bitch.

you are missing the point. It is only AFTER you ordered a meal to you realize you have to pay more.

Think of it this way: If you went to a gas pump and filled up at say $3.30 per gallon which it says on the pump, then filled up and you got the receipt which tacked on an extra 10 cents per gallon, would you be happy?


27 posted on 10/07/2014 12:39:58 PM PDT by bestintxas (Every time a RINO bites the dust a founding father gets his wings)
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To: bestintxas

Oh, I have the opposite opinion.

I think a line by line listing of what the gov’t is costing people would be beneficial.

You know it would be because democRats do everything in their power to prevent it. They have sent thugsquads after businesses that try to pass this information on to their customers like this.

It’s why they oppose the NRST - because the cost of gov’t is in your face with every purchase.


28 posted on 10/07/2014 12:40:12 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: punknpuss

“How do I know that they are paying for the employee’s healthcare?”

You could have a point here. They could be taking the extra
expense out of the light bill. The 3% is really to shore it
up instead of paying for health care. Hunh.


29 posted on 10/07/2014 12:40:40 PM PDT by Slambat
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To: bestintxas

Huh? you’re paying for it one way or another. Would you rather they hide the cost in the price of the meal?

I prefer them telling me what tax I’m paying.


30 posted on 10/07/2014 12:41:54 PM PDT by for-q-clinton (If at first you don't succeed keep on sucking until you do succeed)
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To: Slambat

I pay for a premium
I pay a deductible
I pay for an office visit
I pay ‘taxes’ so people who don’t work can see a doctor
I pay extra at the hosp. so they can recoup losses when other patients blow off THEIR expense for medical treatment
I pay extra at the restaurant, so THEIR staff can have health care

HMMMM... I just paid six (6) times and the doctor hasn’t touched me yet!

Really?

That’s going to work?


31 posted on 10/07/2014 12:41:55 PM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: mountn man

But now they get healthcare...so yes my tips will go down by 3%. Someone has to pay for obamacare.


32 posted on 10/07/2014 12:42:49 PM PDT by for-q-clinton (If at first you don't succeed keep on sucking until you do succeed)
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To: bestintxas

Ever see hotel bills? They disclose the taxes so why shouldn’t a restaurant? I prefer that they do that rather than just raise prices. It isn’t like their costs did not really go up due to Obama-care.


33 posted on 10/07/2014 12:42:50 PM PDT by vg0va3
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To: rfreedom4u
There is no law that requires me to pay this surcharge.

Of course there isn't, so you think you're not paying it. There is a law that makes the restaurant pay the surcharge. Any money a restaurant has comes from you - the paying customer.

So if they don't add a surcharge, but raise the prices instead to cover the costs, you'll still pay more, but then you'll be happy? Because why?

34 posted on 10/07/2014 12:42:50 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: babygene

“Why? Clearly the price of the meal has to go up to pay the added cost. It’s better that the voting consumer understands why it went up. That helps our side...”

You will be surprised at how many people on this thread
will not understand that. They honestly believe that the
owner should absorb the cost.


35 posted on 10/07/2014 12:43:38 PM PDT by Slambat
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To: bestintxas

“Just raising prices on the meal would be the proper thing to do.”

Is that what you do at the business you own?


36 posted on 10/07/2014 12:45:19 PM PDT by Slambat
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To: bestintxas

I think it is a splendid idea. Let people know that ideas have consequences. Those who support obamacare should realize that it increases the cost of doing business and in the end customers will pay. Restaurant could just have raised prices. This way people know obama costs them.


37 posted on 10/07/2014 12:45:49 PM PDT by all the best
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To: SoConPubbie
IF I see that on my bill, the server gets no tip, period.

a small restaurant here NJ tried that recently. After I received the bill I asked the server if she wanted a tip or pay for her Obamacare. Needless to say, I had to explain to her that Obamacare was the ACA. (low info)

She adjusted the bill and took the tip.

The, what shall remain an unnamed restaurant, has ceased the practice.

Now get this.

The aforementioned restaurant does not cover their employees health care insurance.

No proof, but I suspect the surcharge was to pay the owner's.

38 posted on 10/07/2014 12:46:05 PM PDT by Focault's Pendulum (I live in NJ....' Nuff said!)
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To: SoConPubbie

Bad idea it’s not the workers fault, don’t make them the enemy, just don’t go back to the establishment next time. Pretty soon the owners will figure out when their business drops by 25-50%!


39 posted on 10/07/2014 12:46:38 PM PDT by JSDude1
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To: vg0va3

“Ever see hotel bills? They disclose the taxes so why shouldn’t a restaurant?”

One knows that taxes will be included when one checks into a hotel, at the least the ones I go to.

Would you agree that if a hotel decides when you check out, without telling you in advance, that it will charge an extra $10 a night for the cleaning charge of the swimming pool, would make you somewhat peeved?


40 posted on 10/07/2014 12:46:59 PM PDT by bestintxas (Every time a RINO bites the dust a founding father gets his wings)
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