Friday, August 23, 2013
Here's what I don't get about ObamaCare
I'm on record as being against it but having said that it seems to me ObamaCare has no teeth, no nails and so companies are being allowed to evade the Law. More and more businesses have decided to cut back on part-timers' hours to under 30/wk. so as to avoid the delayed but inevitable employer mandate. The year 2013 is a kind of lookback period after the mandate finally becomes fully implemented. Now it's obvious why these companies are doing this and the reason solely has to do with evading the employer mandate of ObamaCare. I haven't read the whole thing but seems to me this shouldn't be allowed, it should be illegal. Gov't auditors should then be able to look back at the corporate history of those companies now only recently cutting part-timers' hours to under 30/wk. and so there should be another penalty, a kind of backup penalty that kicks in if it is determined after a gov't investigation that the corporate motive at play here is to avoid having to provide health insurance to their employees working over 30 hours/wk. A Law has to be serious, just sayin'
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IMO, it may be almost as difficult to get companies to provide health coverage as it is to get the NRA to go along with background checks at gunshows. Now, Reagan- if the traffic controllers ignored him-he fired them.
ReplyDeleteTimes change.
Seems to me if most companies do this, evade the mandate by underemploying pt'ers then ObamaCare has no real effect which leads to the next question what was the point?
ReplyDelete"Most" companies aren't doing it. The few who are... are getting vast amounts of shitty press. I just got the new benefits enrollment stuff for next year (this would be BCBS NC State Employees) and all the ACA stuff in it is quite fabulous. There is, as people were informed, no need to change your insurance if you like it. I like it even more now as it's gotten substantially better.
ReplyDeleteDo you not consider in all of this that the entire Republican Party has worked from minute one to mislead, deceive, distort and manipulate the public against the ACA, and has had FORTY ONE votes to dismantle it? And you question why there isn't more to it? The work the Republicans have done against this law is absolutely STAGGERING and to imagine that it got passed at all with this kind of universal propaganda against it, is amazing. And what's more amazing is that despite all the BS lies and malicious misinformation people are finding that they're really happy with what's going on, they're able to get insurance where they couldn't before, they're able to get benefits for themselves and their kids, they can get treatment now without worrying about bankruptcy, it's really an amazingly great thing. Meanwhile the Republicans plan their next sally forth to dismantle it. I hope to hell they continue. They're digging themselves a huge hole.
There is a $2000 per employee fine for companies electing to provide H insurance. This is cheaper than providing insurance, but some companies looking to hire and retain top help realize that
ReplyDeletebennies like HC are important, as well as public perception. From
what I can tell from talking to fastfood employees, the hours thing goes back years, part-timers being precluded from any benefits. In fact, many of those report being shorted on pay by
having to work over off the clock, etc. Remember, a non-union employee has no rights whatsoever..what a hiring deal, huh?
Thing I don't understand that while productivity has doubled, wages have stagnated over the last 20 years, corporate profits are at all time highs...IMO, there has been a sneaky redistribution of
wealth...away from the working stiff. Yet, the working stiff remains loyal to the free market. You tell me why. Economics
is labyrinthine, politics just ugly. When I started work, health
insurance was a free employment package, yearly increases were the norm and employees were proud of their companies. Whaaa happened?
Sat I take it that wasn't a Blackberry comment but point not addressed. Seems to me there should be sanctions against those companies who are cutting hrs. FOR THE SOLE REASON of evading the mandate.
ReplyDeleteGo ahead and try to prove in a court of law that's the SOLE REASON. You'd never be able to do it. I think there ought to be sanctions too, but we have to be realistic. That being said, companies like Papa John's who make the mistake of making their intentions known feel the wrath of the public on their bottom line. Better they should have supported their employees.
ReplyDeleteMore companies than you think are doing it and I don't think it'd be overly difficult to prove some of these cases in a court of law. Corporation XYZ has been giving their part-timers over 30 hours/week for years with an average range of say 34-36 hours/week. This is common business practice take it from me to give most part-timers just under 40 hours/week so they're just under full-time status so you get ft work out of them for pt pay and bennies. Believe me I know what I'm talking about so along comes ObamaCare and ALL OF A SUDDEN Corp. XYZ starts doing the under 30hr./week thing starting in calendar year 2013 the lookback period for the government. I'm not saying it can be proven overnight but I don't think it's overly convoluted either. IF you can't do this, prove it and level sanctions that is then ObamaCare does not have the full effect of the Law.
Delete& BB what gets me is many of these companies who have cut part-timers' hours to under 30 hrs./week still expect the SAME workload to be successfully accomplished and then some. Compressing more work into less time and they frown on excuses offered by the employees that they didn't have the time. It truly is amazing and there's no way this instills morale in the worker let alone pride.
ReplyDeleteFor every over-worked part-timer, there is an administrator in some office drinking coffee, doodling and grabbing ass: a glitch in the free market concept- productivity goes up, profits go up,
ReplyDeletethe inverted pyramid of bureaucracy fattens...and the part-timer finds an extra job. It stinks, Z-Man
BTW using my new tablet I finally figured out my website's mobile address. I included it over in my links there so let's have some fun!
ReplyDeleteMost part-timers I know these days have other jobs. Makes you wonder where the 8 Hour Session comes in.
ReplyDeleteWhat strange netherworld is this?
ReplyDelete"..my website's mobile address" Interesting; I tried it with the above comment. Will you be joining the sleepblogger phenom?
ReplyDeleteIt's a little different. Barnes & Noble wifi, went there on a crowded 4th of July and had trouble downloading a song, geeky powersuckers everywhere.
ReplyDeleteGetting back to the main point if it can be proven a company is cutting hours solely to evade the mandate under the legal structure of ObamaCare is this still a legal corporate strategy? Very unclear imo.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on if the fine is punitive compared to the cost of providing the insurance. I heard of a company that deliberately
ReplyDeletebuilt a warehouse without EPA permits: The fine they had to pay was minimal compared to the costs of the permitting. Corporate
strategy hinges on cost/benefits, not morality.
I'm guessing those companies who are cutting part-timers' hours solely to evade the employer mandate have had their corporate lawyers vet the new law to see if this is a legally valid corporate strategy, then again maybe it's assumed they can do this.
ReplyDeleteSaty mentioned tweaking ObamaCare every now and then, well here's a tweak.
ReplyDeleteCalifornia may be taking your advice:
ReplyDelete"Employers have been shifting from full-time to part-time work long before Obama’s election or the Affordable Care Act. The law may provide further impetuous, but the decisions of AAA Parking, and other companies like it, represent an acceleration of trends already in progress. But there’s currently a bill in the California legislature that could bring such employers to heel. California Assembly Bill 880 would fine large companies (those with 500 or more workers) up to $6,000 for every employee on Medicaid. The law is specifically designed to discourage companies like, say, Regal Entertainment from executing employment policies that force the state to subsidize their low-wage employment strategies. The Los Angeles Times reports that “firms would face fines based on 110% of the average cost of health insurance for every employee who is enrolled in Medi-Cal and works more than eight hours a week.” Some of these companies have CEOs making millions and are getting worried about the stench of making it off
the payroll of part-timers.
Mike Huckabee offers the GOP alternative- healthcare savings accounts. Lessee here, a single mom, a minimum wage, part-time
ReplyDeletewith rent, food, kids, broken car...great idea, Huckster!
(btw, are his jowls approaching the vastness of Christies?)
Go take this test:
ReplyDeletehttp://slackhalla.org/~demise/test/socialattitude.php
don't be lazy, cut and paste it. I want to know your results.. lol
Here are my results:
Radicalism 72
Socialism 87.5
Tenderness 62.5
These scores indicate that you are a tender-minded moderate progressive; this is the political profile one might associate with an animal rights activist. It appears that you are moderate towards religion, and have a balanced attitude towards humanity in general.
Your attitudes towards economics appear communist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as left-wing.
To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, an egalitarian with several strong opinions.
This concludes our analysis; we hope you found your results accurate, useful, and interesting.
Unlike many other political tests found on the Internet which base themselves on untested (and usually ideologically motivated) ideas, this inventory is adapted from Hans Eysenck's own political inventory which was developed after extensive empirical investigations in the 20th Century.
Took the test: Typical economics skeptic, too pragmatic to score
ReplyDeletehigh on tenderness, I guess-
Radicalism 61
Socialism 87.5
Tenderness 43.75
These scores indicate that you are a moderate progressive; this is the political profile one might associate with a university professor. It appears that you are skeptical towards religion, and have a pragmatic attitude towards humanity in general.
Your attitudes towards economics appear communist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as left-wing.
To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, a pragmatist with few strong opinions.
Looks like I'm dealing with two communists!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard of companies like Papa John's making their intentions public, that they were admitting to cutting part-timers' hours solely to evade the employer mandate under ObamaCare my first reaction was can they do this? I'm no legal scholar but it seems to me if every firm and company, corporation went this route and got away with it they'd be undercutting ObamaCare big time.
ReplyDeleteC'mon, Z-man, take the test. (If you prefer workers underpaid,
ReplyDeleteoverworked, exploited and a mere commodity- you may come out as a
free market capitalist) (If you worship big banks, zillionaire CEOs, admire fresh MBA managers and the Trump, you should be able to hold your socialism score down). :) The idea of undercutting
ACA is probably valid for the 6% (all fastfood) of businesses that
are attempting it.
Only 6%? There might be more who are doing it in a more low-key way and have escaped media attention so far. If a company has just started dabbling in this are they gonna call up CBS? Also don't understand the year 2013 being the lookback period the government is using, go back further and they'll get a more accurate assessment, far more accurate.
DeleteDunno, the test is easy to fake. I answered the questions the way a Tea Partyist would and got-
ReplyDeleteRadicalism 0.5
Socialism 12.5
Tenderness 43.75
These scores indicate that you are a conservative; this is the political profile one might associate with a police officer. It appears that you are accepting of religion, and have a generally optimistic attitude towards humanity in general.
Your attitudes towards economics appear laissez-faire capitalist, and combined with your social attitudes this creates the picture of someone who would generally be described as right-wing.
To round out the picture you appear to be, political preference aside, a centrist with primarily strong opinions.
...now, how come I score the same on 'tenderness' both as me (pragmatic moderate professor) and as a Tea Partyite (mouth-
foaming NASCAR dad, ill-informed troglodyte)?
See I don't fit any of these models. I'm generally conservative in many ways but am not optimistic about humanity as a whole, also slight problems with Big Biz if you read my latest posts. Swinging back to abortion for a minute......
ReplyDeleteI think you're afraid to take the test.
ReplyDeleteI took that soapie test remember? Maybe tomorrow. Today with the porn popup problem on my tablet I spent time clearing the navigation and cache history and debugged it for good measure and also banged and bruised and gashed my elbow on the library's wooden chair.
Delete"With health benefit costs already rising at twice the rate of general inflation, an additional increase of 3% or more will be very tough for employers to absorb,” said Sharon Cunninghis, leader of Mercer’s US Employee Health & Benefits business."
ReplyDeleteOMG, 3%!! ..my sewer bill does that every year.
not to mention my union dues.
DeleteSo that means that instead of it costing $1, it'll cost $1.03?
ReplyDeleteThat's rough, man.
I think the architects of ObamaCare esp. the employer mandate conveniently left businesses an out by only using 2013 as the lookback period and part-timers be damned.
ReplyDeleteI think I may have bought a used tablet. One day a message comes up for Oscar to sign out. I think Oscar's Mom found the porn, discussion ensued, angry Mom returns it to the store and nobody cleared the damn thing which would explain the heavy discount.
ReplyDeleteUsed tablet? Oscar? Let's do a little forensics here: suspiciously sounds like Oscar Meyer. Hot dogs-wieners...porn...
ReplyDeleteJudge Judy saaaays 'the answer is-Anthony Weiner owned the thing'
There's a reason why this blog is called Stranded in Civilization.
DeleteMy test results:
ReplyDeletePolitical Values - Radicalism (47.25), Socialism (43.75), Tenderness (75)
I'm a tender-minded moderate and this is the political profile one might associate with a protective parent. I'd partially agree here that I've had a strong maternal influence my whole life on my moral formation so let's continue. I'm accepting of religion and generally optimistic towards humanity in general. While most of my analysis I tend to agree with I don't know where they got this from. My attitude towards economics is neither capitalist nor socialist which would seem to me I'm ripe for conversion. Finally I'm a political centrist, an egalitarian with few strong opinions.
So I'm the only radical around here, is that it?
ReplyDeleteI took the test slow and like alot of these tests with Very Strongly Disagree and Very Strongly Agree at opposite ends I paused quite a few times and sometimes was gonna put a check at the very end but then went one in know what I'm saying? Kinda strongly disagreed with something or strongly agreed but tucked in a little bit from the most outer extreme options and then there were a couple questions I really didn't have that firm a feel or stance on and checked the middle circle between the two extremes. If I took the test again I might put some of the checks here or there but generally the same. There was one question "is race only skin deep?" and I generally agreed with that but in retrospect for some people race is more than that, a cultural thing to be proud of and I'm not so sure but I might answer differently next time. Kind of a tricky test in spots but interesting.
ReplyDeleteTo get back to another point having a long and varied resume myself I think companies that haven't been doing well financially develop a kind of hostility towards the managed and as one worker said it's unspoken but it's almost like they blame their financial condition on the lowlier workers rather than upper mismanagement. BB's figure of 6% who are undercutting the ACA by cutting part-timers' hours, I'd put that figure a bit higher since we don't know all the facts yet and who's doing what but he's right it seems to be concentrated in the food industry. Soapie has said this is the free-market system reacting to an unfair law which is true but that's putting a positive spin on it. There's also people who work for bad companies who have quietly accepted their oppression over time and don't complain about this and I call this Corporate Stockholm Syndrome.
ReplyDeleteThat would be like all the Republican peasants, who consistently and with great devotion vote for the Republican candidates whose policies keep them peasants.
ReplyDeleteMuch to my dismay even when defending conservatism at the end of the day I've always had to admit Republicans are not on the side of the worker.
ReplyDeleteKudos for your honesty.
ReplyDeleteIt's also largely based on personal experience. Saty if even you support Costco they must be doing something right.
ReplyDeleteCostco is paying their people on average a little over $20 an hour, providing them with health insurance and STILL making a kickass profit.
ReplyDeleteTheir employees are loyal because they know they've got a good job that gives them a wage they can live on. They can go see a doctor and get preventative care so they're generally healthier and don't call out as much (meaning, more productive). They make enough money that they're able to contribute back into the economy, rather than having to rely on social services just to make ends meet.
That all sounds like a company that's good to work for. It also sounds like a company I would want to (and do) support with my patronage.
& probably if there's 3' of the white stuff outside they're not gonna say you have to come in.
ReplyDeleteI was at work at the Army Ammunition Plant north of MPLS during the blizzard of 1967. Nothing moved, couldn't get in, couldn't get
ReplyDeleteout. The entire plant worked three straight shifts (and got double
time). The deal with snow, IMO, is that places that get a lot deal with it better, lots of plows, folks got snowtires, know how to leave early and drive safely in the stuff. Places that seldom
get snow, it is a major problem. I'm guessing it probably depends on where the Costco is. There are interesting excuses for calling in. In my experience "Lighting struck a tree and it fell on my car", "I took too much Nyquil and my eyes are blurred" "My garage
door opener won't work"....and one that sort of bothered me for years, "I shot my husband and I'm in Jail"
Hurricanes too, Republican bosses seem oblivious to weather reports.
ReplyDeleteWhat I want to know is... Who shot J.R.?
ReplyDeleteGeorge Zimmerman?
ReplyDeleteQuik trivia quiz - Who said "I'll bury you in the fucking rose garden"?
ReplyDeleteWho said "the Red line" when he meant The Yellow Line!
ReplyDeleteWho let the dogs out?
ReplyDeleteSo getting back to Republican bosses and hurricanes on the very day SuperStorm Sandy was to strike the night crew had to come in. I went home around 4 that day and the wind was really impressive at that point, in fact I was gonna walk up the hill to the corner grocery store but it felt all vortexy out so I just went home and turned the News on. OK so the night crew got out around 9 and everyone was safe the next day but they really took a chance, tree could've fell on the parkway for those going home, whatever but do the Republican honchos give a shit? Hell no, first off nothing happened but even if it did they can always put an ad in the PennySaver.
ReplyDeleteI'm telling you. Republicans don't care about people, they care about profits. They care about lowering taxes for rich people and businesses, they care about subsidies for huge industrial/corporate giants who make billions in profit, they care about deregulating industries to make it easier to screw ordinary folks.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't understand are the poor schmucks who continue to vote for the same people who keep them under the boot.
BTW Starbucks just fired a worker for eating an expired sandwich out of a trash can.
ReplyDelete..supposed to leave that stuff for the homeless elderly.
ReplyDeleteDumpster diving is the in thing right now like twerking.
ReplyDeleteTwerking: had to look that up. Last dance I learned was the
ReplyDeleteminuet
in third grade. As for dumpster diving, we had a problem in the
woods a couple years back. Some one was siphoning gasoline from
campers, who became stranded. The guys were impossible to catch,
but one day, they tried to siphon the wrong valve and sucked up a bunch of sewage..left their equipment on the spot and gave up the
practice.
Re twerking apparently it goes back aways to even the 60's and is associated with black culture and music. You know I really like the song of the summer "Blurred Lines" but Miley Cyrus at the VMA's has kind of tainted it for me.
ReplyDeleteProbably goes back to the Bapedi people near the headwaters of the Limpopo?
ReplyDeleteJustin Bieber another one. Former wholesome 'tween stars going off the rails.
ReplyDeleteSooo....would you rather work for Costco or Walmart ?
ReplyDeleteI'd rather work at Costco but shop at Walmart.
DeleteWonder if the uber-rich Walmart execs buy all their stuff there.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking purely as a consumer I like the electronics dept. at both Walmart and Target because let's say you're shopping for a screen protector for your mobile device the assumption is not made that everyone has an iPad or an iPhone.
ReplyDeleteGotta be careful at WalMart.
ReplyDeleteThen again maybe he shouldn't have been growing pot.
ReplyDeleteEver the researcher, and unfamiliar with pot, I reviewed the pot
ReplyDeletefertilizer blogs and found,
"Alaska fish emulsion there are 2 kinds, there's normal Alaska fish and there's Alaska. fish is 5-1-1 and morbloom is 0-10-10 they both work great and are only like 7 bucks. U can find em anywhere from wallmart to home depot to Fred Meyer just don't overdo the 5-1-1 it won't burn but it will stink up ur soil, but it's well worth it" So, the WalMart customer was wandering around
the bagged fertilizer outdoors so he could grow the best pot plants when he ran into Mr. Rattler. Perhaps his pot-addled brain
thought it was a stick? Apparently pot is a major crop in our area: few years back a black bear was leading the police on a chase through town, sheriff, city cops, state patrol..lots of flashing lights and running cops. A couple who grew the stuff in their back yard saw them racing around, panicked and started throwing plants over their fence. Hit a state trooper in the face and the rest is history.