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Abbott to scrap health plans under Obamacare

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Anonymous

Guest
(from Chicago Tribune)

The chief executive of Abbott Laboratories warned Tuesday that he expects more corporations to drop employee health care insurance as a result of the health care law and some of the taxes it levies over the next five years.

Miles White, an influential health care executive who has led the Lake County-based medical products giant for 15 years, said there are “clear incentives for companies to drop their health care plans and move people onto the exchanges,” referring to the new, online insurance marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act where consumers can compare and purchase private health plans, often with the help of federal tax subsidies.

“I can tell you that the employees of Abbott or AbbVie (the pharmaceutical firm Abbott spun off in January) are going to be pretty unhappy about that, you know, if we did that,” he told members of the CFA Society of Chicago, an association of investment analysts, at a luncheon.
 




Anonymous said:
(from Chicago Tribune)

The chief executive of Abbott Laboratories warned Tuesday that he expects more corporations to drop employee health care insurance as a result of the health care law and some of the taxes it levies over the next five years.

Miles White, an influential health care executive who has led the Lake County-based medical products giant for 15 years, said there are “clear incentives for companies to drop their health care plans and move people onto the exchanges,” referring to the new, online insurance marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act where consumers can compare and purchase private health plans, often with the help of federal tax subsidies.

“I can tell you that the employees of Abbott or AbbVie (the pharmaceutical firm Abbott spun off in January) are going to be pretty unhappy about that, you know, if we did that,” he told members of the CFA Society of Chicago, an association of investment analysts, at a luncheon.
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This sounds like a great situation. We should thank Miles for telling us.
I am very excited about the positive impact on the company.
 








Anonymous said:
everyone that voted for Obma should go on the exchange system. They wanted it. Let them have it.
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don't worry, most will. Well, only the ones that actually work, so I guess when you think about it, most won't. They'll stay on Medicaid and Medicare.

I can remember coming home summers during college, eager to debate my father's conservative positions, having had my head filled with liberal ideals and the "great society" from my professors. He used to chuckle, and said something that infuriated me at the time: "Everyone's a Democrat until they get a job, start to move up the ladder, and a few tax brackets; THEN you become a conservative". He didn't claim credit for this one, but it went hand in hand with "there's no such thing as a free lunch".

Obama will go down on history for hitting the liberal trifecta: socialized healthcare (the "fix" for Obamacare, coming to a theater near you soon), amnesty for 30MM illegal aliens, and bankruptcy. The gold standard will no longer be the US dollar, which will drive inflation through the roof, and we will be a 3rd world, bilingual country unable to protect or project its interests around the globe. Just what Obama, the Clintons, Pelosi ... and the Iranians, Russians, and Chinese ... all want.
 




Anonymous said:
don't worry, most will. Well, only the ones that actually work, so I guess when you think about it, most won't. They'll stay on Medicaid and Medicare.

I can remember coming home summers during college, eager to debate my father's conservative positions, having had my head filled with liberal ideals and the "great society" from my professors. He used to chuckle, and said something that infuriated me at the time: "Everyone's a Democrat until they get a job, start to move up the ladder, and a few tax brackets; THEN you become a conservative". He didn't claim credit for this one, but it went hand in hand with "there's no such thing as a free lunch".

Obama will go down on history for hitting the liberal trifecta: socialized healthcare (the "fix" for Obamacare, coming to a theater near you soon), amnesty for 30MM illegal aliens, and bankruptcy. The gold standard will no longer be the US dollar, which will drive inflation through the roof, and we will be a 3rd world, bilingual country unable to protect or project its interests around the globe. Just what Obama, the Clintons, Pelosi ... and the Iranians, Russians, and Chinese ... all want.
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Racist old boys club member? You probably got far enough on your entitled status so quit whining.
 
















Anonymous said:
Racist old boys club member? You probably got far enough on your entitled status so quit whining.
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Can you please cite the racism for us? Unless of course by "racist" you mean any and all forms of criticism of the Obama?

Perhaps you can't see the obvious: the automatic assumption that anyone who criticizes Obama is racist is in itself a racist comment.

The reason Obama got elected is precisely because of racism: the press, the constitutionally protected "3rd estate", the watch dog of our democracy, failed completely to challenge and vet Obama solely because of the color of his skin.

I'll never forget the proof of that: on election night, after McCain conceded, and Obama came out and made his speech, the talking heads (Brokaw and I forget who was with him) famously commented "we don't know this man ... what books he read ... his vision for America ...".

Obama asked for the job, and he got it. The job of being President is not an affirmative action position. Being criticized, challenged, and at times thwarted comes with the territory, both during the election process, and while in office.

No elected official can afford to be black, or white, or anything else except an employee of the people who elected him or her to represent them. So while it is historic and significant that Obama happens to have brown skin, that is completely irrelevant to the job and his responsibilities to the American people. And the way he is treated.

If I were in his shoes, I would be insulted that the press handled me, from the start, with kid gloves, and gave me a pass, simple because of the color of my skin. That is textbook racism, and an affront to every person of color in this country who has worked hard to achieve recognition, respect, and success based solely on their merits and deeds.
 
















Anonymous said:
Surely, you must be joking? UPS and IBM just pushed all their retirees over to the Exchange.
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Projections are for 90MM to 100MM working Americans with employer provided Plans to loose those plans. Which is why the Democrats are talking about delaying the mandate until after the next election in order to avoid loosing. And why the Republicans are opposing a delay. Which confirms that this is all politics, and if we were smart we would vote out ALL incumbents regardless of party, and demand term limits for all elected officials. Like 2 terms max.

So when you add that to the 10MM working Americans who buy their own insurance and recently got whacked with massive cost increases, that's 110MM working Americans who will be forced to pay 3 to 5 times more for their healthcare than they did before.

For working families above the poverty line, the cost just for entry, in other words, not factoring in deductibles and co-pays, will be around $24,000 annually. Put another way, $30,000 to $35,000 will be needed to pay for health insurance, NOT including co-pays and deductibles. For most families that will be catastrophic.

People below the poverty line will be able to get Medicaid or Medicare, as they always have. But the taxpayer cost for those programs will dramatically increase, because more people will be forced into those programs by the Exchanges.

And the number of people uninsured, which the basic premise for Obamacare was to cover, will largely remain unchanged: those without the capacity or ability to seek out Obamacare, the homeless, the illegal aliens, etc, will go to emergency rooms and free clinics, as they always have; and the young and healthy who elect not to buy insurance on their own or through their employer will pay the paltry penalty, a few hundred dollars per year, rather than pay $12,000 to buy insurance.

So we are destroying the heath care system, driving costs through the roof, and all the while not achieving what the whole upheaval was supposed to do in the first place.

And that confirms why Government should stay out of the private sector, and should simply provide the guidelines for the private sector to compete.
 




Anonymous said:
Projections are for 90MM to 100MM working Americans with employer provided Plans to loose those plans. Which is why the Democrats are talking about delaying the mandate until after the next election in order to avoid loosing. And why the Republicans are opposing a delay. Which confirms that this is all politics, and if we were smart we would vote out ALL incumbents regardless of party, and demand term limits for all elected officials. Like 2 terms max.

So when you add that to the 10MM working Americans who buy their own insurance and recently got whacked with massive cost increases, that's 110MM working Americans who will be forced to pay 3 to 5 times more for their healthcare than they did before.

For working families above the poverty line, the cost just for entry, in other words, not factoring in deductibles and co-pays, will be around $24,000 annually. Put another way, $30,000 to $35,000 will be needed to pay for health insurance, NOT including co-pays and deductibles. For most families that will be catastrophic.

People below the poverty line will be able to get Medicaid or Medicare, as they always have. But the taxpayer cost for those programs will dramatically increase, because more people will be forced into those programs by the Exchanges.

And the number of people uninsured, which the basic premise for Obamacare was to cover, will largely remain unchanged: those without the capacity or ability to seek out Obamacare, the homeless, the illegal aliens, etc, will go to emergency rooms and free clinics, as they always have; and the young and healthy who elect not to buy insurance on their own or through their employer will pay the paltry penalty, a few hundred dollars per year, rather than pay $12,000 to buy insurance.

So we are destroying the heath care system, driving costs through the roof, and all the while not achieving what the whole upheaval was supposed to do in the first place.

And that confirms why Government should stay out of the private sector, and should simply provide the guidelines for the private sector to compete.
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AMEN!!!!
 




Anonymous said:
Your retirement medical is not like your annuity. Your pension amount is secured, the other benefits can be cut or eliminated anytime. Better save about 250k for your healthcare , and you can thank Obama for that !
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My Mother-in-law retired from Abbott in 1984 after 30 years, at which time she received free medical benefits as part of her pension package. She is 89 now and still receives free medical coverage. Why would things change now??
 








I don't think anyone here is saying that it will change. However the important thing to note is that it could change. People confuse your pension with all the other fringe benefits associated with retirement. Anything other than your pension can change and your Mother-in-law should plan accordingly. So medical, dental (which is not free today) life insurance, albeit a very small amount can either cost more or be eliminated. The mother Abbott we once knew is no longer and the same can be said for the promises she made pre Obama care.
 




As a retiree, we EARNED our company health care coverage. Mile's will never be able to switch us to obamacare!! Too many retirees are shareholders at ABT and we could vote him out of the B of D!!
 








Anonymous said:
As a retiree, we EARNED our company health care coverage. Mile's will never be able to switch us to obamacare!! Too many retirees are shareholders at ABT and we could vote him out of the B of D!!
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"Earned" is the new bad work in this Obama world we now live in. "You didn't earn that!" goes hand in hand with "you didn't build that!". Everything you "earned" is subject to reallocation. Especially healthcare, which Obamacare reallocates from the very old to the young, preferable those on government assistance. You can vote Miles out all you want, but the only vote that really mattered was you gave to Obama. Your chickens have come home to roost.
 




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