[Til I am the last man standing]

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

[pepsionice]

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.

[DJ Frisat]

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)

[motoman]

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.

[unixfox]

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!

[Logical me]

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.

[FormerACLUmember]

“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.

[FourPeas]

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.

[Lou L]

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.

[grumpygresh]

“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.

[Mike Darancette]

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.

[Fedupwithit]

...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..

[Right Wing Assault]

Well, duh! That’s how they planned it!