McDonalds Threatens to Drop Insurance

[Greg Bell]

It's not up to someone else to pay for your Health Care.Do you think it's a RIGHT to have healthcare?.Please...If everything is a right let's make FOOD a right.You need to eat first before you can get sick.If you don't eat you will die.So how about free food....so much for free healthcare...sheeesh...grow up..

 

[Big ole Boy]

for the record .

Health care is not a right ......

.... neither is most other things being pounded in our heads by the media ......

...public education is not right .....

.... self education is a right .....


...... taking care of your self and thinking for your self is a right ......

...

 

[Common Sense]

Who would want to stick around working for a fast food restaurant, it is a transition job. Any restaurant has high turnover, it is the nature of the biz. Besides, how long does it take to train someone to ask if you want fries with that...

Why are we worrying about Healthcare at MCDonalds

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Why are we worrying about Healthcare at MCDonalds

Here is why...

For Healthcare to work, EVERYONE had to be in it. And everyone has to contribute. As part of Healthcare, McDonalds and a lot of other large corps have long had an insurance program for their part timers and entry level part-timers like students. It costs X dollars and it is a limited health insurance, not like the health insurance that their managers are in. That kind of "mini-insurance" (which is want some call it) plans are used not only by McDonalds but by a lot of other chain stores, retailers, and even CBS, Disney, etc.
As part of Obamacare, any such plan that spends more than 12½ % (or some such number) on ADMINISTERING the program, will get ZINGED and that program will either have to be dropped or modified. Since Disney/McDon/CBS and their ilk have no way to cut the administrative costs they will have to pay penalties in order to keep the program.

SO the new Health Czar in Waiting or whomever is trying to figure out how to give McDonalds an exception...In doing so, you shift the advantage back against the people who don't provide such plans - Ford, GM, and HP, for instance - don't need such plans because few of their employees are part timers.

So this tug of war exists because Obamacare says one group has to pay a fine for providing these limited service health plans but on the other hand, they do not want McDonalds et al to simply dump the plan and not provide healthcare to half their employees....which would be cheaper most likely. And it would be the taxpayer who picks up the tab.

The flip side, of course, is that a small outfit cannot avail themselves of such mini-insurance plans, and are thus at a competitive disadvantage with Big Mac - either option that the government chooses...

 

[Green Hornet]

It's not up to someone else to pay for your Health Care.Do you think it's a RIGHT to have healthcare?.Please...If everything is a right let's make FOOD a right.You need to eat first before you can get sick.If you don't eat you will die.So how about free food....so much for free healthcare...sheeesh...grow up..

Greg,

I don't think that I ever said that healthcare is a right. I think it is a good idea from a societal and an ethical position.

Like it our not, with the healthcare system, prior to the reform, you already were paying for other's healthcare, in a very inefficient way.

I think that universal healthcare would free up human capital and create growth. Much as you would argue that taxes stifle investment and entrepreneurial activity, it is my opinion that employer based healthcare does the same thing.

I happen to be part of a society, as are you. We see our responsibilities to other members of our society differently.

As I have said before, anyone who thinks that they have achieved their position in life without any help is fooling themselves. Individuals and business have built their successes on the infrastructure that, we, as a society have built.

To stoop to statements such as "grow up" when discussing issues is revealing of your mentality. Good that you have risen to such an enlightened stage.

So, anyone who thinks differently than you is immature? I would think that would put a stop to further discussions. A good way to prevent any new ideas or insight from creeping in.

Keep up the fight for what you think is right and I will do the same.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I don't think that I ever said that healthcare is a right. I think it is a good idea from a societal and an ethical position.

I think it is a miserable idea and the only reason it is even considered is because medical expense has run away since the 1970s and for no real reason.

Doctors charge too much
They are sued too much
They have to hire too many administrative people to fight with insurance companies
The insurers charge too much and pay out too much to too many
The insurers have proven to be poor investors of their cash so the insurance companies expect the insured to pick up the tab
The tort lawyers are extracting a large measure of this money - far more than a lot of people admit. This isn't just the cost of some big settlement. Suits are filed every day. Many, if not a majority, of doctors retire with pending lawsuits that follow them years after they have left practice. Many are nuisance suits attempting to get insurers to dole out a few bucks. And the litigation costs to defend is a huge burden on hospitals, insurance companies, and doctors alike.
The drug companies are attempting to sell more and more expensive drugs every day.
Medical supplies are priced obscenely. And hospitals compete for new MRIs etc. solely to keep their status as first class hospitals even when a region may have a huge overhang of supply.
We are living longer but not necessarily healthier lives. Drugs, chemo, bypass, and radiation are keeping a lot of people alive at a very high price.
Government regulations are burdensome, and a large part of staffing is to comply with government regulations and provide no real medical benefit.

The general public has been priced out of medicine. It is unaffordable. You only can survive by never getting sick. Frankly, all this "free market" crapola is just that...crap. This is not a "free market" and we just as well do the following
1. Nationalize all hospitals and regulate drug companies. We finance a way too much of the basic research for the drug companies to begin with. Other countries set drug prices, so should we. It is insane that expensive drugs here are a fraction the price in Canada.
2. Hire doctors on salary. If they want to quit, let them and give a green card to every foreigner who qualifies to go to Med school here.
3. Ban all lawsuits against hospitals and doctors.
4. Combine services where too many MRIs and CATscans are available.
5. Create clinics run by super nurses, to treat common problems and place them in Pharmacies. In Europe, the "Chemist" (pharmacist) is the first place you go if ill, not the doctor.

Of course, we won't do any of the above and will suffer under poor medicine at the highest cost in the world for the rest of my lifetime.

 

[Green Hornet]

I think it is a miserable idea and the only reason it is even considered is because medical expense has run away since the 1970s and for no real reason.

Doctors charge too much
They are sued too much
They have to hire too many administrative people to fight with insurance companies
The insurers charge too much and pay out too much to too many
The insurers have proven to be poor investors of their cash so the insurance companies expect the insured to pick up the tab
The tort lawyers are extracting a large measure of this money - far more than a lot of people admit. This isn't just the cost of some big settlement. Suits are filed every day. Many, if not a majority, of doctors retire with pending lawsuits that follow them years after they have left practice. Many are nuisance suits attempting to get insurers to dole out a few bucks. And the litigation costs to defend is a huge burden on hospitals, insurance companies, and doctors alike.
The drug companies are attempting to sell more and more expensive drugs every day.
Medical supplies are priced obscenely. And hospitals compete for new MRIs etc. solely to keep their status as first class hospitals even when a region may have a huge overhang of supply.
We are living longer but not necessarily healthier lives. Drugs, chemo, bypass, and radiation are keeping a lot of people alive at a very high price.
Government regulations are burdensome, and a large part of staffing is to comply with government regulations and provide no real medical benefit.

The general public has been priced out of medicine. It is unaffordable. You only can survive by never getting sick. Frankly, all this "free market" crapola is just that...crap. This is not a "free market" and we just as well do the following
1. Nationalize all hospitals and regulate drug companies. We finance a way too much of the basic research for the drug companies to begin with. Other countries set drug prices, so should we. It is insane that expensive drugs here are a fraction the price in Canada.
2. Hire doctors on salary. If they want to quit, let them and give a green card to every foreigner who qualifies to go to Med school here.
3. Ban all lawsuits against hospitals and doctors.
4. Combine services where too many MRIs and CATscans are available.
5. Create clinics run by super nurses, to treat common problems and place them in Pharmacies. In Europe, the "Chemist" (pharmacist) is the first place you go if ill, not the doctor.

Of course, we won't do any of the above and will suffer under poor medicine at the highest cost in the world for the rest of my lifetime.

Terrel,

I agree with 99% of what you have said. We disagree on the tort issues.

I don't think that the current reform is the final answer. Much of what I thought was good about it was taken out. Politics removed the important parts that would have allowed it to make a difference. This is a common practice that allows the opposition to then, when a reform fails, to say "I told you so."

At least the issue is being discussed. Now it would be nice if all of the politics, scare tactics and hyperbole were taken away and we could discuss it in a sensible fashion. Too many players with too much power and money.

I would add that the ability of the AMA to control the number of doctors needs to be removed.

Regarding, the super nurses, that is already happening. My experience is that they typically provide better care, listen better and are more current on issues.

 

[OSU Beavers]

Health care is not a right ......

.... neither is most other things being pounded in our heads by the media ......

...public education is not right .....

.... self education is a right .....


...... taking care of your self and thinking for your self is a right ......

...

Spoken like a true member of the "Haves"

Access to health care is a right and the ability to purchase affordable health insurance will be a right after 2014.

 

[Lloyd Bonafide]

Why are we worrying about Healthcare at MCDonalds

If for whatever reason, a company like McDonalds is not going to be able to offer health insurance to their employees, then eventually the government will become more involved in health insurance and every other part of our lives, (just like the Democrats want). That's not really a great long-term alternative, but those folks in D.C. have gotten things so fouled up today that we're going to be out of choices soon.

 

[Mr Rex]

Spoken like a true member of the "Haves"

Access to health care is a right and the ability to purchase affordable health insurance will be a right after 2014.

Keep hoping and changing, it will be repealed, the people have spoken, and will speak loudly this November, and again in 2012. The socialist ideal to fill every persons "needs" by the government is unsustainable, even Castro has had a recent change of heart about the whole idea-l of a goverment as nanny state.