Obamacare: Now Appearing On Your Restaurant Bill

[Tsing Tao]

I think this is awesome for two reasons. First, it shows yet again that businesses will just pass on costs to the consumer when hit with taxes. Second, it will continue to drive the negative feeling towards the ACA into the elections.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-27/obamacare-now-appearing-your-restaurant-bill

That the bulk of Americans (especially those 4+ million whose insurance policies have recently been cancelled as a result of the ACA) have to pay more for healthcare as a result of Obamacare, is now largely accepted and well-known. But did you know that the cost of Obamacare is slowly metastasizing to other places? Such as your restaurant bill.

Presenting Exhibit A.

From CNN:

Several restaurants in a Florida chain are asking customers to help foot the bill for Obamacare. Diners at eight Gator's Dockside casual eateries are finding a 1% Affordable Care Act surcharge on their tabs, which comes to 15 cents on a typical $15 lunch tab. Signs on the door and at tables alert diners to the fee, which is also listed separately on the bill.

The Gator Group's full-time hourly employees won't actually receive health insurance until December. But the company said it implemented the surcharge now because of the compliance costs it's facing ahead of the Affordable Care Act's employer mandate kicking in in 2015.

"The costs associated with ACA compliance could ultimately close our doors," the sign reads. "Instead of raising prices on our products to generate the additional revenue needed to cover the costs of ACA compliance, certain Gator's Dockside locations have implemented a 1% surcharge on all food and beverage purchases only."

The company employs a total of 500 people, with about half working full-time. Currently only management receives health benefits, but the restaurant will have to offer coverage to all full-timers once the mandate takes effect. The fee will allow the company to continue offering full-time hours to many workers, according to Sandra Clark, the group's director of operations.

"I'm just trying to keep the employees I have that I've worked hard to train," Clark said.

In addition to the costs of providing health care, the company hired one additional staffer and a consulting firm to make sure it is complying with the law and to assist in the additional tracking of workers' hours and wages required by Obamacare, said Clark.

Clark is not sure how much the company is spending on compliance, but estimates that it will cost $500,000 a year to extend insurance to its full-time hourly restaurant workers. The surcharge may bring in about $160,000 a year, she hopes.

So more surcharges coming then.

The bottom line decision for businesses: fire your workers, or pass through the costs to other consumers. Many have done the fomer, or converted full-time workers to part-time status. Increasingly more are opting for the latter. How long until the popular outcry that this latest "freebie" by the government was anything but.

 

[Spike Trader]

A cute way of encouraging people to ''eat healthy''
Good job Michelle Obama. .

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Obesity rates among 2- to 5-year-old Americans dropped from 13.9 percent to 8.4 percent between 2003 and 2012, according to the findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Overall, however, more than a third of U.S. adults and 17 percent of kids and teens are obese.

"The rapid increase in obesity we saw in the '80s and '90s has definitely slowed," epidemiologist Cynthia Ogden told Reuters Health. "There's some glimmer of hope in the new data in relation to the 2 to 5 year olds."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/obesity-rates-drop-young-children_n_4855826.html

 

[JamesL]

A cute way of encouraging people to ''eat healthy''
Good job Michelle Obama. .

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Obesity rates among 2- to 5-year-old Americans dropped from 13.9 percent to 8.4 percent between 2003 and 2012,

More like "Good Job, Pres Bush!"

 

[Spike Trader]

More like "Good Job, Pres Bush!"

Him too,
give credit where its due. .

 

[Ricter]

It's a dark day indeed when business starts passing the cost of doing business on to the customer. Damn you, Obama!

 

[Spike Trader]

Following a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that made Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act optional for states, 19 states have opted out of the reform, rejecting billions of dollars of federal funding for low-income residents. Texas and Florida will lose more than $9 billion and $5 billion, respectively.

The following map indicates the net loss of federal funds by 2022, in millions, for the 19 states choosing not to participate in Medicaid expansion, assuming all other states participate:


A state-by-state breakdown:

Alabama: -$943,000,000

Alaska: -$229,000,000

Florida: -$5,038,000,000

Georgia: -$2,862,000,000

Idaho: -$297,000,000

Kansas: -$950,000,000

Louisiana: -$1,655,000,000

Maine: -$294,000,000

Mississippi: -$431,000,000

Missouri: -$2,249,000,000

Nebraska: -$738,000,000

North Carolina: -$2,591,000,000

Oklahoma: -$1,264,000,000

South Carolina: -$807,000,000

South Dakota: -$224,000,000

Texas: -$9,217,000,000

Utah: -$719,000,000

Virginia: -$2,839,000,000

Wisconsin: -$1,848,000,000

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/27/states-medicaid-expansion_n_4867252.html


more proof where the low information/low income people are.

 

[PiggyBank]

It's a dark day indeed when business starts passing the cost of doing business on to the customer. Damn you, Obama!

oh wow dude, the cost of obamacare is 100% on him and the dem party. As in, if there were no obamacare there wouldn't be any ACA costs to pass on to consumers. come on mang.

 

[Ricter]

oh wow dude, the cost of obamacare is 100% on him and the dem party. As in, if there were no obamacare there wouldn't be any ACA costs to pass on to consumers. come on mang.

No, you misunderstand. I'm blaming Obama for the entire process, the whole thing, of business passing its costs on to customers. Unprecedented!

 

[Ricter]

Following a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that made Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act optional for states, 19 states have opted out of the reform, rejecting billions of dollars of federal funding for low-income residents. Texas and Florida will lose more than $9 billion and $5 billion, respectively.

The following map indicates the net loss of federal funds by 2022, in millions, for the 19 states choosing not to participate in Medicaid expansion, assuming all other states participate:


A state-by-state breakdown:

Alabama: -$943,000,000

Alaska: -$229,000,000

Florida: -$5,038,000,000

Georgia: -$2,862,000,000

Idaho: -$297,000,000

Kansas: -$950,000,000

Louisiana: -$1,655,000,000

Maine: -$294,000,000

Mississippi: -$431,000,000

Missouri: -$2,249,000,000

Nebraska: -$738,000,000

North Carolina: -$2,591,000,000

Oklahoma: -$1,264,000,000

South Carolina: -$807,000,000

South Dakota: -$224,000,000

Texas: -$9,217,000,000

Utah: -$719,000,000

Virginia: -$2,839,000,000

Wisconsin: -$1,848,000,000

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/27/states-medicaid-expansion_n_4867252.html


more proof where the low information/low income people are.

On the upside, that's more money left over for the states that do participate.

 

[PiggyBank]

No, you misunderstand. I'm blaming Obama for the entire process, the whole thing, of business passing its costs on to customers...

... which no one else did. you're mocking something that didn't happen.