Trader Joe's Drops Health Coverage For Part-Time Workers Under Obamacare!

[Zacha341]

Trader Joe's To Drop Health Coverage For Part-Time Workers Under Obamacare: Memo

After extending health care coverage to many of its part-time employees for years, Trader Joe's has told workers who log fewer than 30 hours a week that they will need to find insurance on the Obamacare exchanges next year, according to a confidential memo from the grocer's chief executive.

In the memo to staff dated Aug. 30, Trader Joe's CEO Dan Bane said the company will cut part-timers a check for $500 in January and help guide them toward finding a new plan under the Affordable Care Act. The company will continue to offer health coverage to workers who carry 30 hours or more on average.

The law mandates that companies with 50 employees or more offer coverage to such full-time employees, though the Obama administration has chosen to delay that rule for a year.

Trader Joe's has won kudos for offering its health care, dental and vision plans to part-time workers at a reasonable price -- a rarity in an industry known for low pay and scant benefits. But with low-wage workers eligible for tax subsidies to buy health insurance next year, the company has apparently calculated that offering medical coverage to part-timers who work 18 hours or more is no longer worth the cost.

See rest of the article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3902341.html

[Jimaz]

DetroitYES Home » Non Detroit Issues » Thom Hartmann » How Obamacare will make us all more free

[Lily]

This entire thing is a joke. The rules change every day. Who knows if the letters we were given to pass out to our employees ,as a small business <50 employees, are correct, or if it will be correct on October 1st. And it is amazing how many people don't have a clue about it. Not sure if they think it is a joke or if they think that someone will waive a magic wand and they will suddenly be insured [[not). Or if they think the potential penalties for no insurance are inconsequential [[not). Or is it maybe most people figure they dont need to woory bout it since we may soon be with no budget anyway?


Y

[Zacha341]

More anticipatory changes are already starting with other companies such as dropping spouses from health plans. That does not make for a good day!

[oladub]

Nancy Pelosi helped explain what is in Obamacare. Candy Crowley read part of James Hoffa's letter criticizing Obamacare for driving employers to cut work weeks below 30 hours. Nancy Pelosi responded that losing the 40 hour work week offered Americans the opportunity to “pursue your happiness … follow your passion.” “Overwhelmingly, for the American people, this is a liberation.”

Congress has a somewhat different standard for itself and has refused to be a part of Obamacare. Nancy Pelosi said that she opposes a cut in congressional pay because it would diminish the dignity of lawmakers' jobs. "I don't think we should do it; I think we should respect the work we do,""I think it's necessary for us to have the dignity of the job that we have rewarded."

[Papasito]

Nancy Pelosi said that she opposes a cut in congressional pay because it would diminish the dignity of lawmakers' jobs. "I don't think we should do it; I think we should respect the work we do,""I think it's necessary for us to have the dignity of the job that we have rewarded."

Congress was never intended to be a full-time job.
It was supposed to be a part-time citizen job to represent the people from their district, while working in the private sector. It should be a volunteer job.