Posted on 07/13/2013 11:26:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
The peculiarities of Obamcare keep piling up. Here's the latest: Wegmans, a Rochester-based grocery store has decided to do something beneficial for its part-time employees, stop health care insurance.
The reason? Employers and employees alike are better off if the employer does not offer health-care benefits to part-time employees.
Please consider Wegmans cuts health benefits for part-time workers.
Et tu, Wegmans?
The Rochester-based grocer that has been continually lauded for providing health insurance to its part-time workers will no longer offer that benefit.
The company said the decision was related to changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act.
Part-time employees may actually benefit from Wegmans’ decision, according to Brian Murphy, a partner at Lawley Benefits Group, an insurance brokerage firm in Buffalo.
“If you have an employee that qualifies for subsidized coverage, they might be better off going with that than a limited part-time benefit,” Murphy said.
That’s because subsidized coverage can have a lower out-of-pocket cost for the insured employee while also providing better benefits than an employer-paid plan.
Under the Affordable Care Act, part-time employees are not eligible for health insurance subsidies if their employer offers insurance.
“It’s a win-win. The employee gets subsidized coverage, and the employer gets to lower costs,” Murphy said.
Wegmans employs roughly 1,433 full-time employees and 4,304 part-time employees in the Buffalo Niagara region.
Now Ain't That Special?
Part-timers are better off with no company health-care offering than with one. Fancy that. Now just imagine the temptation for employers to reduce someone from 32 hours (considered part-time before Obamacare) to 29 hours or 25 hours because the Obamacare definition sets the definition of part-time at 30 hours.
That's pretty special too, and I have just the tribute to offer.
Link if video does not play: Church Lady Chat With Hillary Clinton
The Obamcare effect is real. The distortions are complicated, numerous, and not widely understood.
Obamacare Economic Distortion Synopsis
For more on Obamacare Economic Distortions, please peruse the above links to your heart's content.
And people complained about the complexity of private or employer sponsored health care.
That is the whole purpuse of obamacare - get everyone on it.
When that certain benefits firm in Buffalo stops placing companies with various insurance companies at the end of the year so as to maximize the bonuses each insurance company pays them, I might listen to them.
No matter if your company would be better off with Insurance carrier ABC, they will recommend XYZ Insurance carrier if it increases their bonus. Say something about it and your fired.
Get everyone on it, those who are working steal the money thru taxes to pay for it and recieve third world healthcare
It's crazy that people can't just opt for a high-deductible policy that only covers catastrophic illnesses. Insurance makes no sense if it pays for things everybody would get anyway.
You might also consider a very high deductible plan for catastrophic coverage to add to your medicare, to cover beyond medicare coverage. Pretty low cost.
It must snow Kool-Aid in Buffalo, NY.
Good Grief
The local school board laid off all the teacher aides at
end of school year
It is now working on plan to rehire them to work less than
30 hours a week .........
Given that nationwide statistics show something like 90% or more support for Obama amoung teachers, that seems to be the correct move on a lot of levels.
The school district my sister works for laid off all the teacher aids last year too. Their plan is to hire (desperate) newly graduated teachers into the aide positions so they can be pulled into other classes as substitute teachers as needed at no extra cost.
Employers will now make all their low-skill positions part-time-only and dump them all onto obamacare.
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