Oboma .. another term

ughwhatname · Post by **ughwhatname** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:22 am

Sadly, there is another side to "totally ruin(ing) good, hard-working people" effect. My company, of which I manage the benefits, is looking at a $500,000 increase in medical insurance alone for the exact same coverage for 275 employees. If we don't reduce the plan coverages or greatly increase employee contribution to compensate, then its possible that some good, hard-working people will lose their jobs.

chunkyfrog wrote:Since politicians have been poor at doing what they promise,
I suspect many voted against the guy they most fear will take something away.
Anyone with a health history knows how devastating pre-existing conditions and
lifetime maximums can totally ruin good, hard-working people.
Also, eliminating even a little of the Medicare fraud has been important, hate to reopen those floodgates.

chunkyfrog · Post by **chunkyfrog** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:27 am

Neither side wants to alienate such a large mass of voters.
It won't happen. I saw a heckuva lot of silver hair waiting in line yesterday.
ughwhatname: your employees don't get to vote for your policy--unless they have a strong union.
Employment is still in the employer's favor, last I heard.
I suggest you reduce as unavoidable and kick in a few bucks for preventive measures (flu shots, blood chem.)
Keeping jobs will endear you to everyone (unless you miss the opportunity to dismiss the jerk everyone hates)

Slartybartfast · Post by **Slartybartfast** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:35 am

Slartybartfast · Post by **Slartybartfast** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:49 am

ughwhatname wrote:[snip] My company, of which I manage the benefits, is looking at a $500,000 increase in medical insurance alone for the exact same coverage for 275 employees. [snip]

What's driving that? Is that coming from the healthcare provider network (e.g. BCBS?). I understand we'll all be picking up the costs of insuring the previously uninsurable and those with pre-existing conditions, which needed to be done, but that sounds like an appx. doubling of costs ($1800/employee). So what are you being told is the reason for the dramatic increase in cost?

ughwhatname · Post by **ughwhatname** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:58 am

Its not a doubling of costs. Annual costs are in the 10K range, depending on coverage level and plan selected. What's driving it? Covering dependents to age 26, rising costs of treatment, increased insurance costs to cover preventive care at 100%, etc. etc. I'm not arguing that those can be good things, but there is a price to pay. If I don't pass on the costs to employees, they may not see the effect directly, but if one were to dig a little deeper, one would find either layoffs, less vacant jobs filled, or cuts somewhere else.

Slartybartfast wrote:
ughwhatname wrote:[snip] My company, of which I manage the benefits, is looking at a $500,000 increase in medical insurance alone for the exact same coverage for 275 employees. [snip]
What's driving that? Is that coming from the healthcare provider network (e.g. BCBS?). I understand we'll all be picking up the costs of insuring the previously uninsurable and those with pre-existing conditions, which needed to be done, but that sounds like an appx. doubling of costs ($1800/employee). So what are you being told is the reason for the dramatic increase in cost?

Slartybartfast · Post by **Slartybartfast** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 11:16 am

Understood. I was thinking the participant plan contribution, not the entire cost of enrollment.

That seems to be the way things are going. I'm in a Fortune 500 company. In the last 5 years or so merit increases have been stagnant, workload has nearly doubled, timelines shortened, the number of projects we are working on has increased, and everyone is complaining about the pressure. And that seems to be industry-wide. Everyone is saying it's no better in their company. I'm sitting on nearly 400 hours of vacation time in the bank and no way can I possibly take it and get my work done.

chunkyfrog · Post by **chunkyfrog** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 11:24 am

I can only accumulate up to 240 hours vacation.
If I don't use it, it drops off the end. (into somebody's pocket, I bet)

Pachyderm's Nose · Post by **Pachyderm's Nose** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 11:47 am

Slartybartfast wrote:Understood. I was thinking the participant plan contribution, not the entire cost of enrollment.

That seems to be the way things are going. I'm in a Fortune 500 company. In the last 5 years or so merit increases have been stagnant, workload has nearly doubled, timelines shortened, the number of projects we are working on has increased, and everyone is complaining about the pressure. And that seems to be industry-wide. Everyone is saying it's no better in their company. I'm sitting on nearly 400 hours of vacation time in the bank and no way can I possibly take it and get my work done.

I work for a 30 employee esop, but going through much the same stuff. Mandatory overtime, I'm looking at 600 ot hours this year, up from 8 week layoff two years ago. Too much work, too much stress, no time off, but I love my job, and I'm thankful to have it!

ughwhatname · Post by **ughwhatname** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:00 pm

It doesn't drop into somebody's pocket. Its just an unrealized benefit. We cap at 300 hours, and allow employees to cash out a portion of their balance if they are approaching the cap, so that doesn't happen.

Since unpaid vacation is a liability on the company books, companies like to set an upper end limit.

chunkyfrog wrote:I can only accumulate up to 240 hours vacation.
If I don't use it, it drops off the end. (into somebody's pocket, I bet)

PST · Post by **PST** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:34 pm

Pachyderm's Nose wrote:Well,
Thanks to Obama I can:
Get health insurance even with this pre-existing condition.
Keep my 23 y.o. son on my health insurance until he is financially stable.
Know that my daughters can expect the same pay for the same job as their male counterparts.
Attend the wedding of my childhood best friend and his husband.
Still buy a chevrolet.
Accept that my taxes will go up but Mitt Romney's will too.
Hope that we will not throw 2 trillion dollars at the defense budget that was never requested by the armed forces.
Hope that I will never again see unregulated financial speculation nearly destroy our economy.
Possibly retire someday.

President Barack Obama is not perfect, but he's a darn good moderate democrat. I don't like some of the things he's done but the good things he's done far out weigh the bad.

I agree with most of this, but I would characterize the President as a pretty good Eisenhower Republican. The myth of Obama's radicalism continues to astonish me by its lack of grounding in actions taken by his administration. ObamaCare, with its reliance on private insurance markets, is about as socialistic as the interstate highway system. The past 50 years have witnessed a global movement to the political right: the disappearance of almost all Communist regimes, the privatization of basic industries in the mixed economies of Europe, the retreat of organized labor, and the virtual abandonment of social goals in the U.S. (like a true National Health) that were once mainstream among many Democrats. It isn't the '70s anymore, and much of the apocalyptic commentary I've read other places this morning (like Donald Trump's tweets from last night) seems unhinged.

ems · Post by **ems** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:39 pm

deltadave wrote:
Thetoolman wrote:Oboma...

"When people can't even spell their own President's name, that is the end of civilization."
-Leon Trotsky

I'm sure the "misspelling" of our President's name was purposely done ~ wouldn't you agree?

Congratulations President Obama and on to another four more years!

LSAT · Post by **LSAT** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:41 pm

Slartybartfast wrote:For what it's worth, I'm disappointed. The election didn't go the way I would have preferred it to have gone. But I've long been interested in the reaction in the financial market during the time period leading up to, and immediately following some event. In particular, I've been watching the S&P 500 and gold and silver prices. Presuming that the market's reaction to the news might indicate what the institutional investment community thinks we can expect in the next fiscal quarter or two, I was surprised that there wasn't a very strong reaction to the news. Sure, the S&P is down this morning, but that's to be expected. "Buy onthe rumor, sell on the news" has always seemed to be the pattern. And as that maxim would indicate, there was a selloff this morning, and gold and silver prices are up, but only a little. The reaction was oddly (to me) mild. Rather than forecasting doom and gloom and "let's go out and buy more guns," like some of my acquaintainces say, it seems to me the reaction is predicting "business as usual."

Investors don't seem happy...at noon the Dow is down $260

ughwhatname · Post by **ughwhatname** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:50 pm

Funny, my employees are crying because their overtime got cut! Its really sad when I see an employee who budgets according to their max earnings (using OT in the basic budgeting) and then we cut it. It really hurts some people. No one here cries about too much overtime, other than the occasional employee who works 40+ hours OT a week for a period of time. We've never made OT mandatory, though I know some employers do.

Pachyderm's Nose wrote:
Slartybartfast wrote:Understood. I was thinking the participant plan contribution, not the entire cost of enrollment.

That seems to be the way things are going. I'm in a Fortune 500 company. In the last 5 years or so merit increases have been stagnant, workload has nearly doubled, timelines shortened, the number of projects we are working on has increased, and everyone is complaining about the pressure. And that seems to be industry-wide. Everyone is saying it's no better in their company. I'm sitting on nearly 400 hours of vacation time in the bank and no way can I possibly take it and get my work done.
I work for a 30 employee esop, but going through much the same stuff. Mandatory overtime, I'm looking at 600 ot hours this year, up from 8 week layoff two years ago. Too much work, too much stress, no time off, but I love my job, and I'm thankful to have it!

Slartybartfast · Post by **Slartybartfast** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:48 pm

The wife and I pulled out of escrow last week on what would have been our retirement dream home because of the upcoming economic uncertainties. And some disclosure issues conveniently cropped up to allow us to take that out. Too many things can go wrong if the economy tanks again.

Atlas shrugged.

Slartybartfast · Post by **Slartybartfast** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:03 pm

Oboma .. another term

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