MY company's take on Obamacare...

VaYank5150

Gold Member
Aug 3, 2009
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Virginia
April 7, 2010

Health Care Reform has been covered in the news quite a bit lately. By now, you are aware that on March 23 President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; additional legislation, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, passed by the House of Representatives on the same day made changes to the new law. These changes were approved by the Senate on March 25, and were signed into law by President Obama on March 30.

You probably have questions about how benefits will be affected. I’m writing to you today to tell you that there is no immediate impact on either our programs or your coverage. In fact, our plans today already provide the level of coverage required under the new legislation.

There are some provisions, however, that are scheduled to take effect in 2011 that will impact your coverage.

What's Happening in 2011
The table below outlines the provisions that are scheduled to take effect in 2011 and how our benefits are expected to change as a result. Additional changes may occur during Annual Enrollment in October 2010.

Provisions of the New Health Care Reform Law Effective in 2011 Impact on our Benefits Beginning
January 1, 2011
Requires plans to allow dependent children up to age 26 to be covered under parents’ health plan Plan eligibility rules will be modified to:
Allow dependent children up to age 26 to be covered


Eliminate full-time student requirements for dependent children age 19 to 25

Prohibits certain annual benefit limits and all lifetime maximum benefit limits Applicable annual limits under all plan options will be eliminated


Lifetime maximum benefit limits under the PPO and CDHP plan options will be eliminated (all other plan options currently have unlimited lifetime maximums)

Changes to the eligible expenses allowed for reimbursement under the Health Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and the Health Savings Account (HSA) Over-the-counter drugs will no longer be an eligible expense for reimbursement under the FSA or HSA


What's Next
Our medical plan options remain fully in effect, and throughout 2010 you will continue to have access to the same comprehensive health care and providers that you now have.

We will continue to monitor this legislation and the impact on our benefits. We will also share new information as it becomes available, including details around the next set of provisions scheduled to take effect in 2013 and beyond that would impact our plans.

It is important to know that we remain committed to providing you and your family with broad access to competitive and affordable benefits — benefits that meet your needs for good health care and financial well-being.

We all got this as an email this morning. Why is it Caterpillar is expecting to pay $100,000,00.00 extra THIS year and yet the company I work for doesn't seem to have those issues?
 
Since you don't post what company you work for it makes it rather difficult to respond. And just because they don't mention their accounting issues in an email to employees do you think they don't have any?
 
Most HR company splattercasts have little to do with the actual situations... it is normally to paint a picture for the rank and file employees, whether that picture be inherently accurate or not
 
Since you don't post what company you work for it makes it rather difficult to respond. And just because they don't mention their accounting issues in an email to employees do you think they don't have any?

I didn't think my company woudl appreciate me posting internal documents with their name included. Suffice it to say that I work for a global conglomerate.
 
Since you don't post what company you work for it makes it rather difficult to respond. And just because they don't mention their accounting issues in an email to employees do you think they don't have any?

I didn't think my company woudl appreciate me posting internal documents with their name included. Suffice it to say that I work for a global conglomerate.

Your right.
But it makes it a tad difficult to respond. I'd suggest going to the IR section of the company's website and see what announcements they have made.
 
Since you don't post what company you work for it makes it rather difficult to respond. And just because they don't mention their accounting issues in an email to employees do you think they don't have any?

I didn't think my company woudl appreciate me posting internal documents with their name included. Suffice it to say that I work for a global conglomerate.

Your right.
But it makes it a tad difficult to respond. I'd suggest going to the IR section of the company's website and see what announcements they have made.

That being said, why are people who are against "Obamacare" so quickly willing to accept CAT's claim that it will cost them $100M in the first year even though they gave no details as to why???
 
We all got this as an email this morning. Why is it Caterpillar is expecting to pay $100,000,00.00 extra THIS year and yet the company I work for doesn't seem to have those issues?


Does your company have a lot of retirees on company pension and health care plans which cover prescription drugs?

If not, then it doesn't face the accounting issue of losing the tax incentive for the prescription benefit.
 
We all got this as an email this morning. Why is it Caterpillar is expecting to pay $100,000,00.00 extra THIS year and yet the company I work for doesn't seem to have those issues?


Does your company have a lot of retirees on company pension and health care plans which cover prescription drugs?

If not, then it doesn't face the accounting issue of losing the tax incentive for the prescription benefit.

Our company has been in existence since the late 1800's. So yes, there are a lot of retirees on company pension and health care plans. However, I fail to see what this has to do with CAT?
 
I didn't think my company woudl appreciate me posting internal documents with their name included. Suffice it to say that I work for a global conglomerate.

Your right.
But it makes it a tad difficult to respond. I'd suggest going to the IR section of the company's website and see what announcements they have made.

That being said, why are people who are against "Obamacare" so quickly willing to accept CAT's claim that it will cost them $100M in the first year even though they gave no details as to why???

probably for the same reason you are so willing to disbelieve it.
 
Your right.
But it makes it a tad difficult to respond. I'd suggest going to the IR section of the company's website and see what announcements they have made.

That being said, why are people who are against "Obamacare" so quickly willing to accept CAT's claim that it will cost them $100M in the first year even though they gave no details as to why???

probably for the same reason you are so willing to disbelieve it.

Fair enough. The devil is in the details, and to date, I have not seen anything from CAT as to WHY "Obamacare" is going to cost them $100M in the first year. Have you?
 
Fair enough. The devil is in the details, and to date, I have not seen anything from CAT as to WHY "Obamacare" is going to cost them $100M in the first year. Have you?


It's GAAP accounting required for financial statements filed with the SEC.

CAT continued to pay for prescription drugs for its retireees - instead of dumping them onto Medicare. They received a tax incentive, which on balance, saved taxpayers money.

Now, they will be dumping these retirees onto Medicare, and their taxes will increase due to the end of the tax incentive. Taxpayers will pay more than double for the government provided prescription coverage as compared to the tax incentive cost.

How that is supposed to help shrink the deficit nobody has been able to explain.
 
The reason why CAT (and I imgine others) are taking the 100 million hit:

Caterpillar To Take $100 Million 1Q Charge Related To Health Bill

They are required to do so...

Thanks, House!

But based on this snippet:

Caterpillar, the world's largest construction equipment manufacturer by sales, warned last week that provisions in the legislation would subject the company to federal income taxes on the federal subsidies it receives for providing prescription drug benefits for its retirees and their spouses. Since 2003, the company has received tax-free reimbursements toward its drug-benefit expenses.

it sounds like they have been getting a tax break since 2003?
 
The reason why CAT (and I imgine others) are taking the 100 million hit:

Caterpillar To Take $100 Million 1Q Charge Related To Health Bill

They are required to do so...

Thanks, House!

But based on this snippet:

Caterpillar, the world's largest construction equipment manufacturer by sales, warned last week that provisions in the legislation would subject the company to federal income taxes on the federal subsidies it receives for providing prescription drug benefits for its retirees and their spouses. Since 2003, the company has received tax-free reimbursements toward its drug-benefit expenses.

it sounds like they have been getting a tax break since 2003?

So I guess they were. Andthey made business decisions based on that. Afterall, they were offering a pescription service to their personnel.

How would you like it if you made a fianncial decision based on what you knew, and then someone decided to change the rules on you during recession?

But if I took your post properly, your attitude is "hey, they were offered a tax break for doing the right thing for 7 years, and now that they are struggling financially, we are taking that tax break away AND making it law that they spend even MORE MONEY doing the right thing...and tough noggies on them if it creaetes serious fiancnail hardhsip for them"

And lets see what happens when they are forced to lay off. "Those evil greedy CAT owners. They take an itty bitty financial hit and they make the employees suffer"

Not saying you will say that Mr. Yank. Just saying that has been the rhetoric as of late.
 
We all got this as an email this morning. Why is it Caterpillar is expecting to pay $100,000,00.00 extra THIS year and yet the company I work for doesn't seem to have those issues?

It's all hype.

How can a law that hasn’t taken effect hit corporate bottom lines so hard?

It hasn’t.

The only change since health care reform became law is a bit of accounting fiction involving a remarkably sweet double bonus that big corporations would like to continue exploiting.

...

Under health care reform, corporations still will get their 28 percent subsidy for providing retiree drug benefits. But instead of deducting $1 for every 72 cents they spend, they’ll be able to deduct only 72 cents.

Health care reform and the corporate bottom line

Essentially, the whiners are complaining about losing the a tax break the Republicans gave them. It's real money but most of us would say they didn't deserve it. Maybe your employer isn't a whiner and isn't complaining about not getting something he didn't deserve.
 
The reason why CAT (and I imgine others) are taking the 100 million hit:

Caterpillar To Take $100 Million 1Q Charge Related To Health Bill

They are required to do so...

Thanks, House!

But based on this snippet:

Caterpillar, the world's largest construction equipment manufacturer by sales, warned last week that provisions in the legislation would subject the company to federal income taxes on the federal subsidies it receives for providing prescription drug benefits for its retirees and their spouses. Since 2003, the company has received tax-free reimbursements toward its drug-benefit expenses.

it sounds like they have been getting a tax break since 2003?

So I guess they were. Andthey made business decisions based on that. Afterall, they were offering a pescription service to their personnel.

How would you like it if you made a fianncial decision based on what you knew, and then someone decided to change the rules on you during recession?

But if I took your post properly, your attitude is "hey, they were offered a tax break for doing the right thing for 7 years, and now that they are struggling financially, we are taking that tax break away AND making it law that they spend even MORE MONEY doing the right thing...and tough noggies on them if it creaetes serious fiancnail hardhsip for them"

And lets see what happens when they are forced to lay off. "Those evil greedy CAT owners. They take an itty bitty financial hit and they make the employees suffer"

Not saying you will say that Mr. Yank. Just saying that has been the rhetoric as of late.

Thank you for puting so many words in my mouth their Jarhead....and now if you are done with your drama queen impression?
 

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