Abbott's White: Employers to scrap health plans under Obamacare

The Chicago Tribune ^ | November 19, 2013 | Peter Frost

[2ndDivisionVet]

The chief executive of Abbott Laboratories warned Tuesday that he expects more corporations to drop employee health care insurance as a result of the health care law and some of the taxes it levies over the next five years.

Miles White, an influential health care executive who has led the Lake County-based medical products giant for 15 years, said there are “clear incentives for companies to drop their health care plans and move people onto the exchanges,” referring to the new, online insurance marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act where consumers can compare and purchase private health plans, often with the help of federal tax subsidies.

“I can tell you that the employees of Abbott or AbbVie (the pharmaceutical firm Abbott spun off in January) are going to be pretty unhappy about that, you know, if we did that,” he told members of the CFA Society of Chicago, an association of investment analysts, at a luncheon.

Companies with more than 50 full-time workers that don’t provide coverage face penalties starting at $2,000 per worker in 2015, far less than the cost of providing coverage...

[PGR88]

We have only just experienced the changing of individual plans. It is nothing compared to what is coming.

Just wait until corporations start dropping their employees or drastically changing benefits due to Obamacare. The numbers will be huge compared to what we just saw with individual plans. These are middle and upper class people who are the basis of opinion in this country - and they are in for a big shock.

we can see just how cynical Obama was to extend the employer mandate through 2014, but there will be hell to pay after that.

We have seen the earthquake, but the Tsunami has yet to hit.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Mr. White is clearly RACIST!!

[facedown]

This is rich. Miles White was one of the "Healthcare Executives" that Obama wined and dined and browbeat into going along with this monstrosity in the first place. Now he's running for the tall grass because the whole thing is imploding, acting like he didn't know nothin' 'bout nothin' until just now. Phony baloney double-talking POS.

No matter what happens to us proles, he'll still be living large.

[Mannaggia l'America]

This is exactly what my husband’s company is doing - we already received our cancelation notice in Sept and we have to meet on Dec 2nd for a Health Insurance meeting where “ACA Navigators will be on hand to assist us” meaning we are getting dumped into the system. His company is a POS so this was expected - they are most likely going to pay the penalty and we will be left to fend for ourselves in the black hole of Obamacare.

The company I work for is pretty thoughtful of its employees, so for them to consider doing this shows me that it is going to become a real trend.