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Big firms find ending health insurance and paying fines may be cheaper.
Dallas Morning News ^ | 5-8-10 | Victor Godinez

Posted on 05/08/2010 6:51:55 AM PDT by Til I am the last man standing

AT&T paid about $2.4 billion last year to cover medical costs of its 283,000 active workers, according to one document.

If the company were to push all those workers onto subsidized exchanges, AT&T estimated, it would only have to pay an annual penalty of $600 million, or $2,000 a worker.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: att; benefits; bhohealthcare; deathcare; hcr; healthinsurance; obamacare; reid; romney; romneycare; verizon; workplace
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Save $1.8 billion? Sounds like a no-brainer to me. There was another thread running earlier in the week that has more info from the original Fortune Magazine article. That article goes on to discuss how much money the CBO says HCR will cost the taxpayers if just 50% of people receiving benefits thru their employer end up on the exchanges. It can be found here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2508093/posts

1 posted on 05/08/2010 6:51:56 AM PDT by Til I am the last man standing
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To: Til I am the last man standing

Shocked? The guys who designed this...knew this from months ago. Every piece of this has a consequence tied to it and moves you to plan B down the road in five years.


2 posted on 05/08/2010 6:55:02 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: pepsionice

Funny how the word employee isn’t used much any more? I use it when I can.


3 posted on 05/08/2010 6:58:17 AM PDT by wally_bert (It's sheer elegance in its simplicity! - The Middleman)
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To: Til I am the last man standing

This also serves to gin up more hatred for “greedy, evil corporations’ for taking away benefits in order to save money — and, in some cases, survive.

That makes the gubbermint look more kind and benevolent in giving everyone their “free” healthcare.

Oh, thank you, thank you for taking care of us!

(barf)


4 posted on 05/08/2010 7:02:25 AM PDT by DJ Frisat (How's that change workin' out for ya, Obama voters?)
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To: Til I am the last man standing

Ask any of the cool-aid drinking idiots who supported this disastrous HCR bill if they really believe their nanny state government will provide the same quality and access to health care with the $8,000 being brought in vs. what the individual received under his/her employer. If their answer is yes, then encourage them to push for their employer opt out of employee subsidized health insurance.


5 posted on 05/08/2010 7:03:54 AM PDT by motoman
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To: Til I am the last man standing
Pay the fine???

Eff these people, I say defy the friggin bastards that are destroying this country!

THEY CAN'T PUT US ALL IN JAIL!

6 posted on 05/08/2010 7:04:24 AM PDT by unixfox
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To: Til I am the last man standing
Once the communists empire headed by King Obama and the corrupt Communists Party (formally the Democratic Party) you will have literally no coverage. Shortage of hospitals, doctors and associated staff will result in months to see a doctor. And here is the catch, once on this new health care program we will never be able to change back to employer paid health plan. By then most firms will be tax strapped to be unable to convert back. Can't stress enough that we are now on the verge of a total collapse into a trap that we will never be able to get back. Like Social Security and the now bankrupt Medicaid and Medicare.
7 posted on 05/08/2010 7:06:44 AM PDT by Logical me
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To: pepsionice

One of the conditions the IMF gave to Greece with the ‘bailout’ was to curtail the Greek government provided health care system.


8 posted on 05/08/2010 7:07:40 AM PDT by griswold3
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To: pepsionice

Exactly. Kill private insurance and move to the public option. The public will be clamoring for it as they see their premiums rise. Business has always wanted to get rid of the burden of health care.


9 posted on 05/08/2010 7:07:58 AM PDT by kabar
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To: pepsionice
Precisely.

Obamacare, Disaster Not Reform, medium
10 posted on 05/08/2010 7:11:00 AM PDT by Oceander (The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance -- Thos. Jefferson)
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To: unixfox

A co-worker yesterday told me that in the health care bill is a requirement that when a private person pays any small business or another private person $600 or more that the buyer is required to file a 1099 on the seller.

Has anyone else heard about this?

If this is true...I just see it as more enslavement....we are tax paying units to these people.


11 posted on 05/08/2010 7:11:19 AM PDT by Aria ( "The US republic will endure until Congress discovers it can bribe the public with the people's $.")
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To: Til I am the last man standing

“Big firms find ending health insurance and paying fines may be cheaper.”

THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF OBAMACARE.

Of course the democrat party media will continue to cover-up and lie.


12 posted on 05/08/2010 7:25:36 AM PDT by FormerACLUmember ("Subtlety is not going to win this fight": NJ Governor Chris Christie)
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To: Aria
The best thing an employer can do is to NOT hire anybody even remotely supportive of this regime.

Hit em where it hurts, in their wallets!

13 posted on 05/08/2010 7:27:34 AM PDT by unixfox
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To: Til I am the last man standing
Funny, this was known months and months ago — well before the Obamacare was signed into law. Only now does the MSM decide to give it coverage. Hopefully enough of the American people are paying attention.
14 posted on 05/08/2010 7:32:08 AM PDT by FourPeas (God Bless America)
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To: Til I am the last man standing
The only possible hope is for the "healthcare" received under Obamacare to be so bad, and so inefficient n(which it will be), that companies opt to keep private insurance, even at a higher cost to them. Still, the move to cancel insurance will be seen as an experiment, and when the results are proven, there will be no private insurance left for companies to choose.
15 posted on 05/08/2010 7:41:18 AM PDT by Lou L (The Senate without a fillibuster is just a 100-member version of the House.)
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To: unixfox

“The best thing an employer can do is to NOT hire anybody even remotely supportive of this regime.”

Obama supporters don’t work. They are professional parasites sucking off government (taxpayer) money one way or another. They don’t pay taxes.


16 posted on 05/08/2010 7:46:15 AM PDT by FormerACLUmember ("Subtlety is not going to win this fight": NJ Governor Chris Christie)
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To: Til I am the last man standing

“This is one of the concerns that Republicans had, that these kinds of plans would drive private sector plans out of business,”

As large and small corporations drop their employee health care coverage and opt for the penalties while relegating their employees to the government sponsored exchanges, the remaining conventional private insurance pools will contract. Federal coverage mandates and a shrinking pool will drive up costs of the remaining conventional private group plans. Individual plans will become prohibitively expensive and not worth purchasing.

We have got to push back at the state level and keep up the pressure in the courts.


17 posted on 05/08/2010 7:58:52 AM PDT by grumpygresh (Democrats delenda est)
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To: Til I am the last man standing
AT&T said it has no plans to drop employee health coverage.

I wonder if anyone really believes that AT&T would say otherwise. Even more than the money the paperwork overhead involved with Obamacare will probably drive employers of offering health care insurance. This is not an unintended consequence.

18 posted on 05/08/2010 8:08:08 AM PDT by Mike Darancette (Global Warming™ - Too big to fail.)
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To: Lou L

The private insurers will be driven out of business by market forces of this new legislation. It will be cheaper to pay the fine rather than purchase insurance and then sign up for the insurance only after the need arises. Since the legislation mandates they accept all applicants without pre-condition exclusion at a mandated premium they will fold in a hurry. The economic model will not work!
Therefore everyone will be forced to the government plan and viola’ - they have one-payor system which is the socialist goal...deviously brilliant, but devestating for the american populace. A two-tiered system will evolve (unless they legislate against that as Hillary tried to do) whereby cash-paying patients will get the care and treatments in timely manner and all others get DMV (take-a-number-and wait) care! It will not be a pretty site if and when the american people wake up and realize what socialism has wrought. However, as in Europe (see Greece today) it will be too late.
Wake up America - 11/2/2010 may be your last hope!


19 posted on 05/08/2010 8:34:08 AM PDT by Froggie
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To: Til I am the last man standing
...and how long is it going to be before all these businesses that drop health care see the "penalty" that they pay be just as much, if not more than having a health care plan on their books. 5 years? 10 years?

The only plus that these businesses have now is that they can control what they can of costs by changing and bidding out their health plans with different companies. When Mr Bammy and his friends get a hold of it, it will be "pucker up, buttercup..", just like the rest of us.

If we all don't fight this...man, woman, company, employer, employee...we are all up the creek..

20 posted on 05/08/2010 8:52:26 AM PDT by Fedupwithit ("The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants" -Albert Camus)
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