Posted Mar 26, 2010 09:32am EDT by Henry Blodget in Healthcare Information, Recession

Remember the part in the ObamaCare pitch when they said if you like your current healthcare, it won't change?

Turns out it might.

Companies are already announcing that their healthcare premium costs are going through the roof. Some are responding by firing people. Some are cutting benefits. And some are presumably eating it.

But costs they are a-rising.

A few examples from the WSJ:
-- Caterpillar said it would cost the company at least $100 million more in the first year alone.
-- Medical device maker Medtronic warned that new taxes on its products could force it to lay off a thousand workers.
-- Verizon announced to employees that it will likely have to cut healthcare benefits to offset the new costs.

So, people who like your employer-provided health insurance, get ready to pay more or get less.


http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/450638/Businesses-React-to-Rising-Cost-of-ObamaCare%3A-Theyre-Cutting-Benefits

no doubt, some companies COULD have to lay off (join the club) and some will LIKELY have to offset the costs,,,

it all just means that business in the medical industry are no longer above the types of decisions other business have to make daily

I've got news for ya. Employer health care has been costing more and and cutting benefits for years. Not to mention retirees who have had their pensions and health plans cut.

Add AT&T to the list of companies that will now began to change your coverage....and it will be less not more.

insurance just makes it easier to raise the cost of medicial treatment . we would be better off with no insurance that way they would have to lower there fees in order to stay in business .

Consumers Energy, a Michigan gas and electric company with 2.9 million customers, said today it will not cut health care benefits but will instead apply for a rate hike to offset costs that will be created because of health care passage.

And the list grows....

Towers Watson, a consulting firm, estimates Obamacare will cost US corporations 14 billion dollars this year.

John Distaso, New Hamsphire Union leader, said that for not providing insurance to seasonal workers ski resorts in the state would face over 1 million in fines when the law kicks in.

Geeze. ONE medical equipment company on the list of 3...and it's no big deal.

Forget the fact that this bill is going to cost EVERY business in the country a lot of money. Forget the fact that costs for EVERYTHING from toothbrushes to combs is going to rise.

Forget the fact that this country can ill afford more layoffs..

And of COURSE forget the fact ( quite conveniently ) that Obama's promise of " If you like your plan you can keep your plan " ( which OBVIOUSLY isn't going to hold true at all ) is already going out the window.

It doesn't matter if more people lose their jobs....we got " reform ".

Freaking amazing.

without reform, all these things would still ring true,,,

Really?? Those companies would have wound up paying millions more than normal for " taxes " to pay for health care?? They would have been FORCED to lay off thousands to make up for the added costs?? Caterpillar would have been FORCED to pay 100 million in taxes???

Nice justification.

Too bad, when the economy falls even further into the pit it's headed toward, that " reform " isn't gonna feed people.

But hey...at least when they start dying from being out in the elements because they lost their jobs and homes or can't afford to feed themselves properly, they'll be able to get " free " health care.

Oh wait...they still have to pay for it?? Oh that's RIGHT.

The only thing that will happen is that the insurance will ( supposedly ) get cheaper...but the cost of everything else is going to go up by leaps and bounds.

Brilliant strategy.

The 'United States of America' you USED to live in ended 20 January, 2009. Welcome to the future Zimbabwe - Cuba Low-Rent High Maintenance District.

Thank goodness!

Thank goodness. 12% unemployment is SO much better than what we had before.

Continuing job losses ( which weren't addressed by Obama, except to extend unemployment benefits and make people ever more reliant on the government, he was too busy with more IMPORTANT [ yeah right ] things ) is SO much better than having people working and paying their own way.

Having the government stick their noses into out lives even further is SO much better.

Next up. Amnesty for 12 million illegals. They rammed health care down our throats against our will. Nothing will stop them from doing the same with Amnesty.

After all...Obama and the Dems are gonna need all the votes they can choke us with.

What a FANTASTIC country we now live in.

Thank goodness so many things are SO much better now.

1) It's called a recession. It would be happening even if another man was our president.

2) Were addressed by Obama - stimulus package. Extended unemployment check helped my ex's sister. She's been laid off from her upper management job in the mortgage department of a bank for a year and a half. She got called back this week!

3) Government hasn't stuck their noses in my life.

4) Hasn't happened.

taxes would still rise, regardless of the specific amount or reason,, companies would still have to balance their budgets and make cuts to make up for the current economy, and life will still go on and unemployment is currently NOT 12percent

'Nonfarm payroll employment was little changed (-36,000) in February, and the unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.'

So why doesn't that logic apply to people....we all r going to pay a lot more, indirectly, of course, because of Obamacare. The hidden cost are probably an additional trillion dollars + .

“Write those letters now. Call your friends, and tell them to write them. If you don’t, this program I promise you will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow....one day…we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don’t do this, one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”

Ronald Reagan 1961

Radio Advertisement trying to scare people about the soon to pass Medicare Bill.

I didnt say how much more people will pay. I am just stating that TAXES would still rise,,,,companies pay different taxes and at different levels than individuals. I dont mind my taxes going up so that EVERYONE can have access to affordable healthcare, or better roads, or better schools....

deep,, life will go on

its kind of overkill on the whole socialism thing, I said repeatedly that I first of all dont think socialism is terrible, unlike what Russia or Germany had and secondly if its anything like Russia or Germany had,,,where government actually CONTROLLED everything,,we are far from it just because we now pay taxes towards the healthcare americans have access to. Doctors are still PRIVATE employees, not government employees,, people can still CHOOSE a private insurance company and not be FORCED into the one government chooses for them....etc..etc...etc...