Posted on 09/18/2013 5:29:59 AM PDT by 11th_VA
Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain, reportedly will no longer offer health insurance coverage to about 180,000 employees at its approximately 8,000 US stores. Going forward, workers will need to buy coverage on so-called healthcare exchanges with an employer-provided subsidy.
The company apparently attributed the major change to its benefits package to healthcare cost increases as well as Obamacare, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Healthcare exchanges or marketplaces are supposed to be up in running as of October 1 under Obamacare, a.k.a. the Affordable Care Act. During an August 2009 town hall meeting, President Obama promised that “If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan.”
Under the new Walgreens policy, “the firm will pay a fixed amount for employees to select coverage options in a private insurance exchange run by Aon Hewitt, a consulting unit of Aon PLC.
The exchange will offer up to 25 different plans in some states.” According to a Walgreens exec, “I think the only way to drive down costs in the health care space is to have the consumer buying the health care be knowledgeable and educated and understand what they are buying.”
To date, however, many state healthcare exchanges, however, don’t yet exist or are behind schedule in ramping up, prompting one US Senator to describe the situation as a huge train wreck.
(Excerpt) Read more at inquisitr.com ...
Obama’s intention in the first place.
Single payer is the ultimate goal.
NHS for America.
too bad they couldn’t wait til closer to election time......I hope the employees have long memories...
Sign & Endorse!!! (WWW.DONTFUNDOBAMACARE.COM)
House Democrats, you are about to be put on the “HOT” seat, either voting for or against defunding Obamacare!!! I caution you.......that those that vote “No”, supporting POTUS Obama will be facing angry American voters, who hate Obamacare in just about one year from now!!! And.....yes.....you can bet we, the American people will be coming after your seats, throwing you out of office!!! Think wisely, vote “Yes” or choose to go down with Obama, your failed, incompetent POTUS!!! (WWW.DONTFUNFOBAMACARE.COM)
The BO is getting what he wants..so WTF are we to do????
I believe employers also quietly lobbied for this so they can ease out of providing health care. This would explain why there’s bi-partisan support for continuing to fund obamacare. I think we’re pretty much screwed.
Under the new Walgreens policy, “the firm will pay a fixed amount for employees to select coverage options in a private insurance exchange run by Aon Hewitt, a consulting unit of Aon PLC.
1) These are not Obamacare exchanges but rather a private insurance vehicle that is similar.
2) depending on the fixed amount, this is a typical employer paid with employee contribution health care plan - nothing new.
3) there is no mention of Federal subsidy
too bad they couldn’t wait til closer to election time......I hope the employees have long memories...
Why? The GOP elite has shown they have no interest in fighting obamacare. Now mega corps like Walgreens will shower the GOP with K Street payola to keep some form of obamacare. Election time is too late, we have to stop unaffordable care now now or it will never be repealed.
IBM is also doing this. Lump sum payout to get your own insurance.
We don’t fund it. We choke their Navigators from operating anywhere near state facilities or having any legal STATE status. Provide NO assistance at the state level - no offices, no voter lists, no citizen or state participant lists - NOTHING!
Defund anything with respect to implementation of Obamacare, shut the government the hell down if it comes to that.
When these formerly covered employees find out their Messiah sold them an empty bill of goods, they’ll think twice maybe. They can blame conservatives and Republicans but they’d do that anyway no matter what. I say go for broke - because we are.
This might be a good solution. Employees given a lump sum now have some skin in the game with incentive to shop for the best deal for insurance. Now if they could only shop nationwide instead of being restricted to state authorized insurance companies.
If they would allow the insurance companies to write policies that aren’t one size fits all and allow shopping across state lines for the best deal.
You bet!!! Employers can’t wait to get out of the Healthcare business...Large companies can dump entire HR/Benefit departments. With the money they save, they can help fund the subsidies...Over time, as people get used to the process, the Large companies can begin “weening” the subsidies for additional savings...
At least 45% of the citizenry always can be convinced that conservatives are to blame for all the country’s problems.
We already have a socialist system, we are arguing over who gets the final bill.
Honestly, we will have single payer soon. Business wants it, old people want it, the only people who don’t are those who have to pay.
I stopped feeling warm fuzzies about Walgreens when I heard an ad this week saying that if you get a vaccine there, they see that a kid in another country gets a free shot. It’s called, “Shot@Life”, and sponsored by United Nations Foundation, Bill Gates, WHO, etc.
“Shot@Life, a campaign of the United Nations Foundation, educates, connects and empowers Americans to help protect children in developing countries from vaccine-preventable diseases. By joining this movement, you can help save a child’s life every 20 seconds by learning about, advocating for and donating vaccines to children who need them most.”
How about giving free shots to kids in OUR country instead of to the kids who’ll be killing our children in 20 years? Maybe I’m a cold-hearted bitch, but why not save OUR children first? We already know that, no matter how much good will we show to other countries, they still despise us and want to take us down. Enough.
Umm...no. Single payer is not the ultimate goal. Obama is nothing if not Fabian. This was never about health care. Engineered for failure from the onset, that which comes after Obamacare (”Son of Obamacare”) is the ultimate goal.
Note the hypocrisy in that Walgreens makes a tremendous % of it’s profits by billing third-party health insurance.
They are accelerating a trend that could eventually put them out of business. More clueless grads of some MBA program apparently.
Do not blame employers for this. They were providing a service and benefit beforehand and doing that, for the most part, as they advertised.
You must always remember that Obama and the Democrats that want to control your lives, your thoughts and your actions are responsible for this by maneuvering employers into the situation where there viable alternative but drop coverage.
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