Will there be a McDonald’s Inquistion now? Torquemada Sebelius tightens the screws
Last week, my syndicated column gave a brief, brutish history of Obamacare inquistions.
The column ended with this warning:
Sebelius’ threat last week against individual market health insurers who raise rates to cope with new federal coverage mandates will be far from this desperate administration’s last.
As health costs skyrocket, doctors abandon the profession, hospitals lay off workers and private insurers shut down, the only way to quell the Obamacare backlash will be through an even more thuggish campaign to demonize, marginalize and silence nationwide dissent.
Well, this morning, the WSJ brings the grim, completely expected news that fast-food giant McDonald’s has notified the feds that it may be forced to drop health insurance for some 30,000 workers due to the Obamacare mandate:
McDonald’s Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul.
The move is one of the clearest indications that new rules may disrupt workers’ health plans as the law ripples through the real world.
Trade groups representing restaurants and retailers say low-wage employers might halt their coverage if the government doesn’t loosen a requirement for “mini-med” plans, which offer limited benefits to some 1.4 million Americans.
The requirement concerns the percentage of premiums that must be spent on benefits.
While many restaurants don’t offer health coverage, McDonald’s provides mini-med plans for workers at 10,500 U.S. locations, most of them franchised. A single worker can pay $14 a week for a plan that caps annual benefits at $2,000, or about $32 a week to get coverage up to $10,000 a year.
Last week, a senior McDonald’s official informed the Department of Health and Human Services that the restaurant chain’s insurer won’t meet a 2011 requirement to spend at least 80% to 85% of its premium revenue on medical care.
McDonald’s and trade groups say the percentage, called a medical loss ratio, is unrealistic for mini-med plans because of high administrative costs owing to frequent worker turnover, combined with relatively low spending on claims.
This Obamacare havoc is the unintended consequence of Democrat attempts to control insurer spending on executive salaries, marketing and other costs.
And yes, the shifting from private to government insurance is the ultimate, intended consequence — and has been all along. (See here, here, here, here, here.)
McDonald’s is the tip of the iceberg. Many other major companies that offer mini-med plans will also be affected, including Home Depot Inc., Disney Worldwide Services, CVS Caremark Corp., Staples Inc. and Blockbuster Inc. And the feds may not make a decision until it’s too late. The WSJ points out that many companies’ deadlines for signing up employees to benefit plans arrive in November.
What fresh demonization, reeducation, or inquisition plan will the White House peddle now in response to this latest inconvenient truth about Obamacare’s toll?
***
Update Instant damage control: McD’s denies the story.
Update: The truth keeps seeping out. Via Forbes (h/t Obamacare 411):
Last Friday, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners—the association of the 50 state insurance commissioners—issued its draft guidelines for how insurers will need to calculate “medical-loss ratios,” or MLRs. The wonkiest among you will recall that the medical loss ratio is loosely defined as the dollar amount that an insurer spends on the health care of its beneficiaries, divided by the total dollar amount the insurer collects in premiums. Section 2718 of our new health care law mandates that insurance plans sold to individuals and small employers must spend at least 80 percent of their premiums on health care, and plans sold to large employers must spend at least 85 percent.
But, like everything else with Obamacare, the devil is in the details: how do you define health care? How do you define “insurance plan”? Now that the NAIC has spoken, we have a good idea of how the final regulations will look. And the news is not good: the MLR regulations are likely to lead to a significant disruption of the health insurance market, with many insurers exiting the market, driving premiums up and choices down.
And this isn’t just my opinion. Maine Superintendent of Insurance Mila Kofman wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, asking Sebelius to waive the MLR rules for Maine until 2014. “One insurer has indicated its intent to pull out of individual markets (and has explicitly named one state where that decision has already been made),” wrote Kofman. “Prior to 2014, implementation of an 80% medical loss ratio requirement may destabilize the individual health insurance market in Maine.” Maine currently has a state MLR requirement of 65 percent; eliminating 15 percent of an insurer’s budget in three months is no small task.
Susan Voss, Iowa’s Commissioner of Insurance, has also asked Sebelius for a waiver. “Our first goal as insurance regulators is to protect consumers,” wrote Voss. “Part of that protection is providing ‘choice’ in the market place. Without some form of ‘phase-in’ for these individual carriers, consumers in Iowa will be left with fewer choices.”
Fewer choices, not more.
SHHHHHH!!!!
***
Update: Torquemada Sebelius tightens the screws and slams the WSJ, via John McCormack at The Weekly Standard.
Update: Awww! Torquemada Sebelius doesn’t like being called a thug.
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Categories: Health care
Sister Toldjah
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Who’d of thunk it, Wally? And it’s only the beginning.
I couldn’t disagree more.
This is the intended consequence of the single payer proponents of Obamacare.
Obamacare…the stealth enema purging the Demoncraps.
Hey, wasn’t this supposed to be the big “movement” that united the libs? They got what they voted for: socialism.
I guess this doubles down on the Left’s hatred of McDonalds. That ObamaCare will cost these people their health care or even their jobs bothers leftist such as Secretary Sebelius not at all. That McDonalds mentions it publicly will outrage them. Breaking a few eggs to make an Omlet Secretary Sebelius? Oh well the Abortion Queen has spoken.
Super Size me.
et,
You’re correct. The Democratic Socialists have always had the goal of a government-run single-payer healthcare plan. They couldn’t jump that gap in one shot, so what they are doing is forcing non-union health care plans out of business.
Obama promised:
But here’s the reality…
Bingo!
Also, anybody know what happens to the big guys like Humana if it were to go to (or get close to) a single payer system? Could the big guy(s) become the government’s administrator of Obamacare?
Comments from HotAir:
Sebelius: “Take special care of those Big Macs, I want those most of all! Now fly – fly! Fly! Fly! Fly!” (issuing orders to her flying monkey henchmen)
et – you nailed it. The entire purpose of commiecare is not to provide health insurance, it is to destroy health insurance companies to force government control of medical services.
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=155701&catid=339
DENVER – If you’re one of the thousands of Coloradans who works for a small business, you might be receiving a surprise in the mail this week regarding your health insurance.
Health insurance provider AETNA has announced they will move several of their existing clients off the plan in the next year.
A spokesperson for AETNA told 9NEWS on Wednesday approximately one thousand companies will have their plan dropped, and right now they are not disclosing the amount of employees and dependents that will be affected.
The company says they will also stop selling new health insurance to businesses with fifty people or less.
The plan is working perfectly. Price insurance out of bounds of business through regulations that you have to cover every known ailment including things which can’t be accurately diagnosed, and then be forced to go single payer to cover all the people you forced off the insurance rolls. The fastest growing segment of Social Security isn’t seniors, it’s disability for things one can’t diagnose either. The system is on it’s last legs, let it die and let’s move on. Another great welfare democrat theory shot to hell in the real world.
It’s all hitting the fan, folks. All hitting the fan, as we speak. There is absolutely NO WAY that Obamacare is going to work in this country. Everyone knows it. It MUST be repealed. And Pelosi, Reid, Obama need to answer for this massive debacle that they have shoved down our throats even though they knew we DID.NOT.WANT.IT. They lied about it at every turn and used coercion and corruption to jam it through. This trio will be prominently perched on the dung heap of failure in the history books.
RTater said: regarding AETNA
I’m still trying to figure out what these big guys like AETNA and Humana will do. So in this case:
Will Obamacare then use our tax dollars to go back to the AETNAs/Humanas to administer/pay their medical bills?
Where’s Sebelius and her goon squad?
Why do giant companies like McDonalds always cave in to Obama’s threats? Why are they denying it now? They should testify before Congress and give them a piece of their mind. They know America doesn’t want Obamacare. These executives have NO cajones. They need to be kicked out of their positions and forced into early retirement. The shareholders and employees continue to get screwed by these testicle-less CEO’s capitulating to liberal politicians and non-profit community agitators.
The solution to this problem is counter intuitive, and easy to demagogue.
The answer to rising health care costs is providing a catastrophic health care option.
Instead, Obama, under the direction of the union leaders decided to force everyone to buy the most expensive benefits they could get.
This is why there are so many problems in companies with unions. The unions demand benefits that are unrealistic and they don’t care what the benefits cost.
If you were to negotiate benefits with unions, the argument would be over 10 dollar copayments or ridiculously expensive 15 dollar copayments.
This is how they negotiate. People need to pay for their own health costs. They won’t care how much they use the system if it’s all ‘free’.
Obamacare forces everyone to have cadillac plans, and blames insurance companies for not issuing affordable cadillac plans.
This from a government that thinks 42,000 dollars is cheap for an electric golf cart.
The people spending the money have no concept of the value of a dollar. We have the government hell bent on spending other peoples’ money. When they waste everyone else’s money in an attempt to pay people off to get elected, they expect everyone to treat them like deities for ‘saving’ us.
We’d be a lot better off with a lot less ‘saving us’ from the government.
2 all beef patties,special sauce,lettuce,cheese,pickles onions on a sesame seed bun.Health care is rapidly starting to look like what the left wants,an ABORTION.
Oh, wait! So you mean younger workers Change(tm) low paying jobs more frequently in the Hope(tm) of getting a higher paying one?
And…
Younger workers tend to have less need for health coverage because they are single and want the money instead of health care they are likely to never use?
No! It couldn’t be that! Obrainless and his socialists being b!tch-slapped by reality again.
Why, it’s almost as if there are consequences other than what we were led to expect from enacting Obamacare. This may be the first time this has ever happened with a government program.
We should petition our Dear Leader to make him aware of this problem. I am sure, in his everlasting benevolence, he will call Congress into special session and present a plan that will correct this problem.
It is good that Dear Leader Obama is watching over us…
The nuclear detonation is going to occur in early 2011 when the new Congress repeals Obamacare the Obama vetos the bill.
All hell will break loose.
Nice of you to think of me…..
If you like your plan…
…we intend to screw you, you evil capitalist.
After pandering to the gay lobby so much, I wonder whether McD’s going to grant theirs an exemption?
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Of course, the GOP doesn’t have to repeal Obamacare though I suspect there will be one amazing fight amongst Democrat votes to override an Obama veto of the repeal of Obamacare.
The GOP can simply refuse to fund Obamacare. Obama’s options would be to veto a budget not containing funding which would shut down the government or acquiesce to a budget without funding.
If we remember our recent history, the GOP doesn’t always win these standoffs and the GOP “leadership” is amazingly adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory…
Oh jeez. I guess the Stasi will be called in now. Comrade Sebelius is on the move.
This is exactly what the progressives are counting on. Soon, the only option for millions of Americans will be the single-payer government plan that has bankrupted most of Europe. The choice is between medical bankruptcy and a sub-standard health care system. This is a financial certainty and this is what happens when ideological, insane politicians think that their way of socialism will work for the first time in the history of the planet.
Well Mickey D’s is just another of those “evil empires” like Wallys that need to be shut down by our munificent, all knowing Gov.
/sarc/
What will the GOP’s plan to “repeal and replace” mean? Isn’t that just a euphemism for “modified Obamacare”?
Sebelius.
Definition: Decaying, necrotic.
ie: Whenever I eat a Big Mac my bowels become distended and sebelius!
‘What on earth does that mean?’
‘I don’t know. I was told to come & say there was trouble at the mill–that’s all. I didn’t expect a kind of McDonald’s Inquisition!’
According to polls, virtually half of the country really loves this law. I wonder when one or two of them are going to show up here and mount a really informed, spirited defense of it?
This is a non-statement from McDonalds. You can bet they are planning to, or threatening to, cancel the mini-med coverage. And given personal experience with CVS, you can bet your last band-aid that they will do the same.
I can’t wait for the Obama Administration to start up the EVIL BUSINESS Tour, vilifying businesses that attempt to make sure they remain profitable and in business.
and furthermore…. this is exactly correct Michelle. Of this there is zero doubt.
BLAAANNNGGG!!!
No one expects another Socialist Inquistion!
…No, wait…yes, we do….
Intended, but aint going to happen.
Correct.
Empty, meaningless BS terms like “moving forward” and “open dialogue”….
I love this line from the WSJ piece as it captures the essence of the collison between utopian liberal tinkering with the lives of real people, and the real free market. As Michelle points out, the INTENDED consequence of liberals is a full takeover of health care by the nanny state.
Right… this as well as other components of their “Socialization of Amerika” plan are well orchestrated and planned out. The Socialists play chess as the GOP plays checkers.
This is a silent, bureaucratic war on America.
Nibbled to death by ducks.
“Let me be clear . . . if you want to keep your coverage, you’re SOL.”
True, and that will likely be their only option unless they can convince enough of the remaining Democrats to vote with them to not only overcome a filibuster in the Senate, but to override a veto. I just don’t see that happening. However, even if they defund it, provisions like the 80% rule and death panels are still going to be in force and they’re still going to result in low-wage workers losing their private health insurance and older people being denied care. Repeal is an absolute must, but it may take at least one more election, and by then the damage is going to be massive, with a lot of insurers driven out of the business. There’s no telling when the tipping point might be, but sooner or later a large enough group of the uninformed are going to feel like they have to depend on the government plan, and it’s going to be like Medicare and Social Security – untouchable.
Souns gloomy, I know, but it’s a pretty gloomy picture, even if the Republicans take back both houses of Congress – and there’s no guarantee they will.
If I recall correctly, one of the features of donkey-care is the inclusion of a two-thirds majority vote requirement to repeal it.
Even assuming the most optimistic scenario – that we take back both houses of Congress in this election – it’s unlikely that we’ll have a two-thirds majority in the House and impossible that we’ll have a one in the Senate.
What this means is that if the Supreme Court doesn’t find donkey care unconstitutional, then we’ll have to be as creative in dismantling it as the donks were in imposing it on us.
Refusing to fund it will be a good first step.
As distasteful as it sounds, however, to effect a complete repeal legislatively the same ends-justify-the-means/we-make-up-the-rules-as-we-go-along methodology that was instrumental in creating this monstrosity will be necessary to destroy it.
In a similar vein…
Mexifornia is just another proof of the fact that they can ignore the operation of the free market, but they will not be able to ignore the consequences of ignoring the free market.
- Victor Davis Hansen
That does not bother me.
We are in a war now.
A war on America that the socialists started many decades ago.
It is up to us to finish it.
I know that that sounds simplistic.
But, I believe it is the truth.
WarEagle82 said this:
This could be the sweetest victory. Just watching Obrainless squirm as he tries to decide what he wants to go unfunded; socialized health care, or the entire gov’t. Even a community organizer should be able to see the clear choice.
Looks like the Democrats and Obama got exactly what they wanted…
I don’t know if this is what they wanted. Frankly, I’m not sure they even knew what they wanted.
But I do think that they’re just fine with McDonald’s taking such action notwithstanding the PR disaster for ObamaCare.
See, if we could have purchased the insurance that we wanted the same way we can purchase any other insurance products, the pre-existing condition thing would not have been as much of a problem and the insurance would have been portable from job to job. Instead of solving those problems, bho and crew decided to lie to the public while they imposed mandates in an effort to control the insurance and health care industries. I’m hoping that after all the companies ditch the insurance plans they offer, that the insurance companies will come up with products we want to buy in order to survive as a company.
Here’s what would fix this… and force Sebellius to shut up.
“The Patient Affordable Care Act is hereby repealed.”
Get it done GOP.
Doesn’t bother me either. Whatever it takes. And we certainly have no need to take the “high road”.
Just get it done.
Well, it looks like Commissar of Your Health Plan Sebelius has or will grant a waiver (or so she claims.) Why how magnanimous of her! We must be crazy to not realize what wise and benevolent leaders we have. And to think people had doubts about giving this type of decision making power over our lives. How could we have been so blind to not willingly submit to our betters?
I started getting cr@p from my insurance co telling me that I have been enrolled in a program that has me consulting with a panel from the insurance co to help my doctor to develop a plan to direct my care. I can opt out of the program if I want. I wonder if this “panel” thing is another gov mandate hidden in bhocare.
I was annoyed that I wasn’t give the choice to opt in rather than opt out. I was also miffed that they “were providing me with a team of nurses and other specialists to help me make informed choices about improving my health and well being”. I can select my own doctors and nurses and don’t need some “panel” of people whose credentials I haven’t see directing me or anyone else regarding the health care I should have.
Hay gov, get out of my food, health care, health insurance, electic sockets, cars, banks or anything else you clowns think you need to control.
Speaking of control, hear the latest? The Fed may soon be demanding all municipalities replace all street signs from all capital letters to just first letter capital because, according to studies, it takes milliseconds longer to read a sign in all caps and the change MAY slightly reduce the occurance of accidents, all for the cost of mere hundreds of millions, at least.
Hawkeye – Maybe all the ARRA signs have been printed and this is another way to keep the sign-making subsidies flowing?
Very likely. Vultures like AARP and the AMA have already expressed a willingness to betray their country for a buck. I’m sure other large insurers with deep pockets will want to buy in too.
That’s why a full inquiry into the Obamacare cramdown process in 2009 and the Great Housing/Financial Meltdown of 2008 needs to be initiated immediately after the elections. The money trails will become visible very quickly. This is key to convicting as many conspirators as possible.
As always, take the opposite of what a liberal says, and it’s there that you’ll find the truth!
Yup Hawk, there’s no end to the gov stuff. The individual states need to get a spine and trot out the 10th amendment for all these intrusions like changing signs. Signs need changing when they fade, not because of the printing style on them. What wackos did that study? anymore silly spending the gov wants to manufacture?
The gov has one of those stimulus road signs near me which is bigger than the town it is in.
Thanks RD. I believe more needs to be exposed about the relationship of these big companies and ObamaCare. If there is ‘collusion’, the Dems will attempt to point us in another direction by blaming the insurance companies, to make it appear these companies are working on their own.
Yes…. that would be a waiver …..to avoid the cancellation of the policies… that it’s not canceling….
yeah…. I get it.
… shades of things to come.
Mother Government, may I?
Hold on to your God Given rights.
It’s clear that sophmoric Marxian bureaucrats and politicos concocted this idiotic scheme, probably on the back of an evelope over at a J Street bar and after 5 or 6 drinks.
Think about this… The rule of thumb for overhead operations is 15% of the total budget. This does not include any direct expense or margin. If the Federal government is mandating that insurers pay out 85% of all their revenues in benefits, they are basically telling the insurer to close up shop. They would be running deep in the red immediately. Why should they stay in the market? Any prudent businessman would and should tell them to pound sand.
This amounts to government price controls so onerous as to be a death sentence. This is a no-brainer. All the more reason to charge Obama and Sebelius and all the congressional Democrats with gross malfeasence of office. Make them pay back their salaries then fire them all.
Yup. Completely intended. While it may be the big players such as Humana and Kaiser Permenente where we will get the care, there was never to be anything other than the single payer, government run, Obamacare plan.
The ObamaCare stinkbug has just landed where I work. Because the premium has shot through the roof (mainly due to the requirement that 25-year-olds be treated like babies), my company’s management has decided they can no longer cover employees’ spouses, so long as they can get coverage where they work.
Thanks for nothing, OweBowMao!
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HI CHEAPSEAT–#10. You hit the nail on the head. The goal is to destroy the private insurance industry so the Gubmint can step in and impose single payer national healthcare.
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The current problems aren’t a bug–they’re a FEATURE.
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And if you think people are ticked off when their insurance disappears or becomes twice as expensive–just wait until all taxpayers get a $2000 to $4500 tax hike when they do their 2011 tax year 1040′s. They will get their WTF wakeup call when they notice another $200 to $450 missing in their paychecks (if they still have jobs!) as Comrade Obama’s IRS jacks up witholding amounts in Jan. 2011.
***
Even the dumbest voter will notice this one. And they won’t be blaming the evil BOOOOSH either.
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John Bibb
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I’d like nothing more than to see this fascist bimbo hauled before several Congressional committees to answer for what she has done and said in threatening American citizens.
The Weekly Standard article says that the government is already giving McDonalds a waiver, and is willing to discuss another waiver.
Sucks not to be McDonalds.
If you have no job, you’re going to blame the Democrats and take it out on them in the polls.
If you do have a job, with benefits, your open enrollment is in October. You’re going to the polls knowing what Obamacare will cost you next year.
If you pay taxes, you’re going to the polls knowing your taxes will go up, because the Bush tax cuts were not renewed.
These are the people who think they should run our lives?
This would be the perfect chance to conduct a Chavezista-like government takeover of all businesses who “take actions contrary, or deleterious to the public good.”
Fortunately for us, conservatives won victories in the House. Now, we need to see if the new majority will have the necessary cajones to confront the Obama Administers of Injustice, and hold them accountable for past actions. We’ll see….