Costs of Obamacare keep rising
The CBO keeps increasing their cost estimates for Obamacare, as more and more regulations are created by Health & Human Services to deal with the mandates of the "Affordable Care Act". Remember, there was very little language in the act regarding how the mandates would be implement and that was left up to HHS to create the regulations. But what's getting even less coverage in the MSM is what businesses are saying about the costs of implementing Obamacare. Just last week, Papa John said the cost of a pizza would increase between 13-20 cents just to implement Obamacare. He's not alone in his analysis.
A new study by human resources firm Mercer found that 60% of businesses estimate implementation of Obamacare will increase their health costs while about 33% don't know. The general consensus is each business will see an increase of 3% in operating costs while about 1/3 of the firms think the cost will be 5% or more.
Think about his very carefully boys and girls. Let's take the low end of the scale, 3% increase in operating costs means you will pay more for goods and services by more than 3%. Why? Because the manufacturer will pay 3% and pass that on to the wholesaler, who also pays 3% more plus what the manufacturer charges him; the retailer is not only paying 3% more on his costs but also has the costs added in by the wholesaler. It's exponential and unsustainable. This is just with what's known now about Obamacare. HHS still has to write many regulations and procedures for the parts of the bill that go into effect in 2014. So while the act requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide healthcare, that cost is still passed on to the small businesses, through higher costs for products and services mom & pop stores pay.
Who's hit the hardest by the bill's provisions? Those with part time employees, especially in the restaurant industry. McDonalds's Corp. CFO Peter Bensen said that each individual restaurant will incur between $10,00 & $30,000 in added annual costs because of provisions in the current law. So the college kids working part time or grandma and grandpa with part time jobs to help make ends meet are going to get hit; those restaurants can't hire more people because they don't have the cash. As the CEO of CKE Restaurants, owners of Carl's Jr & Hardees, said in a conference call, "The money to comply with the act must come from somewhere. We use our revenue to pay our bills and expenses, to pay down our debt and we reinvest what's left in our business. That's how we create jobs. There's no corporate pot of gold we can go to, to cover our increased health care costs. New unit construction will cease if we have to allocate moneys for that to the ACA. Building new restaurants is how we create jobs."
Don't think this isn't all by design; it is working just the way the liberals wanted it to work. Surveys show that between 11 & 35 million Americans will lose their coverage they have through their employers. Nancy Pelosi said, "the way we see it is an innovative prevention-oriented way for businesses to be emancipated from health care costs because they have a way out or whatever works for them." Where do those employees go for coverage? To the government. When this system collapses, the 'solution' will be a single payer system, which is what Obama wants.