For years, conservatives who oppose Obamacare have argued that it would cause the workforce to shrink, and incentivize the elimination of full-time jobs in favor of part-time workers. The claims were roundly mocked by the left, which countered that conservatives were just too stupid to understand the brilliance of what Obama was doing. Then, the predictions came true.
As expected, companies as diverse as Cisco, Forever21, and Subway have begun cutting hours or employees in an effort to dodge the Obamacare bullet. Democrats who support the law couldn't care less. As long as the law is protected, nothing else matters.
The other prediction was that people would begin to lose their employer coverage as the price of healthcare and insurance increased under the new law. Infamously, we were told that this would not be the case. Obama promised the nation. "If you like your current plan, you can keep it."
So, imagine the surprise being felt by 15,000 UPS employees who are about to say sayonara to the insurance they receive for their spouses.
According to Kaiser Health News, and reported by the
Atlanta Business Chronicle, Obamacare has made it too expensive to continue offering the high quality care for which UPS is known. So, they're just going to stop. The company has informed its white collar workers that 15,000 spouses who are currently eligible for insurance will be dropped from the UPS plan next year.
A UPS memo states that rising health care costs, "combined with the costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, have made it increasingly difficult to continue providing the same level of health care benefits to our employees at an affordable cost.”
Oh-so-shockingly, the move will apply to non-union employees only. We wouldn’t want to tick off big labor, now, would we?
Under Obamacare, dependent children can't be dropped, but there are no such protections for spouses. If you currently receive insurance through your husband or wife, now might be a good time to look into a much more expensive alternative. We hear the exchanges, though far behind schedule, will be a nice place to spend all that extra cash you've got laying around.
