US businesses cannot afford the HC bill

Unfortunately, I believe it is probably too soon to really assess the costs or overall impact.  Even the article states that companies say it's too soon to estimate costs. 

I'm trying to be as objective as possible.  I just know from working for a large corporation that government changes equate to trying to do the same or more with fewer people.  Sarbanes-Oxley alone was one of the most painful things to happen to the corporate world.

Of Course they can't.

But it keeps my wife employed (She's a corporate records manager, makes sure her company stays compliant)

I was reading where a couple of middle size companies  apx 180-200 have already figure out a few loopholes.. they basically fired everyone started five separate companies to hire back groups and subcontract each other.  This way they are under the fifty people threshold.  which for them ended up being better than being in what they called a "no mans land" between small and large companies.

while I'm not sure if I agree with all of the bill and there will be some major upheaval to a few/some/many depending on your viewpoint.  I'm thinking a lot of business will find a way around things or adapt.

of course if they fail they can just get a bail out 

Should businesses *have* to find loopholes to stay in business?  Seems like a silly way to set up your economy to succeed.



It said "the other companies" said it was too soon.  Apparently Deer and Cat do not think it;s too soon.  Even so I bet you dollars to doughnuts they can anticipate the direction of the costs if not the exact figures.  And it sure ain't down.

Edited by TriRSquared 2010-03-26 6:27 AM

The Senate bill that was enacted into law has been around for quite some time.   You can bet that any big company has had resources dedicated to studying the costs of both the House and the Senate bill.   I believe that CAT and Deere are both heavily Unionized and therefore have some serious skin in the game.

My own company (Cummins) has been eerily quiet on the matter.   They've been slowly herding everyone onto High-Deductible plans with HSA.   I've liked this.... even though I have a wife with a chronic health condition (MS) and 3 kids.   Sounds like the high-deductible plans are going out the window with the "reform." I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens.

We've done better than most companies during the recession.    A low debt-to-capital ratio and $1B on hand may put us in a better position to manage the cost.  Also, our unions are very impotent and so don't cause major trouble for the company.  We'll see, I guess.  

This user's post has been ignored.

Funny. My wife is the Controller for a company of around 200 employees and this is exactly the strategy we discussed last night.

Unless all 200 are union employees who are going to vote Democrat I doubt they will be getting a bail out.


Edited by TriRSquared 2010-03-26 8:17 AM

HA!!!  When businesses defined with 50 or more employees is considered large, there is trouble brewing.

We are currently right over that.  This will end up hurting us and our employees.  The economy has already hurt us, and this is likely to force us to make deeper cuts, which may not be good.  The only bright side, is that it doesn't take full effect for 4 years, although we may see increases in insurance premiums that we, nor our employees can afford before then.

This user's post has been ignored.

And people think unemployment is bad now, wait a few years for this to start.

Oh well, I hear there are a bunch of new jobs at the IRS now. 

Hey now. Healthcare Reform is already creating thousands of new jobs.

It's just they're in India. (Or being OUTSOURCED to the US by India-based companies!)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100325/wl_csm/290215

 really???  cue the erie type music.. ooooaaaahhhh       I know i should have patented that plan now.  

Except that we are paying for it NOW through increased taxes!  That is why the bill claims to reduce the deficit; not hard to do when you collect for 10 years but only pay for 6.

Not at the rate that the new HC bill will make them rise.

My "federally approved plan" is estimated to cost me between $12-20k by 2016.

I currently pay about $6-7k.  I also see about a 5-7% increase per year.

$7k to $20k is almost a 300% increase in 6 years

Actually, the healthcare reform is keeping me hopping here in the US, along with many of my co-workers, as we make changes to add the new rules in.  And most states do not allow their work to be outsourced to India for Medicare and Medcaid work at least.  It's being done here.

it's called higher systemic unemployment.

Yeah, our unemployment rate is ridiculously low.

Edited by zed707 2010-03-26 11:18 AM

And for Europe these are normal and not the result of a particularly bad recession.

France

Year	Unemployment rate (%)
2000	11
2001	9.7
2002	9.1
2003	9.1
2004	9.7
2005	10.1
2006	9.9
2007	8.7
2008	7.9
2009	7.4