Whether you are in the left, right or middle, you do not want to see companies taking such huge hits that they are forced to cut costs or glup even go out of business. Cutting costs equates to:
(1) Heads rolling - This is a foresure impact (expect the official unemployment of 10% to increase and the unofficial to skyrocket)
(2) Pushing costs to consumer (you will see it from office supplies to food at restaurants and the grocery store)
(3) Cutting Employee Benefits overall (see about retiree benefits and drug coverate below)
(4) Cutting R&D meaning we get less innovation (and the is extremely bad for industries competing int he global market - See Zoll)
(5) Extra incentive to move some or even all operations overseas (see Haiti)
(6) Less Corporate Spending (a big chunk that drives the market is intercorporate spending! It dwarfs consumer spending. It will sharply go down)
Below is a list of publicly known impact on companies. You better believe all businesses big and small are feeling the impact directly, indirectly and with enough force to hurt everyone!
Estimate profit losses directly caused by Obamination:
Cost to S&P 500:
Cost to John Deere:
Cost to the Medical Device Industry (forget about innovation!):
Cost to MA Zoll (ever wonder why MA voted for Brown and against Obamination Care? Zoll is a huge employer, this bill will hurt MA hard!):
Cost to Caterpiller:
Cost to AT&T:
Cost to 3M:
Effect on Verizon (not stated amount, but its significant):
RESPONSE - LEAVE US SOIL:
RESPONSE - BENEFITS CUT:
(1) Heads rolling - This is a foresure impact (expect the official unemployment of 10% to increase and the unofficial to skyrocket)
(2) Pushing costs to consumer (you will see it from office supplies to food at restaurants and the grocery store)
(3) Cutting Employee Benefits overall (see about retiree benefits and drug coverate below)
(4) Cutting R&D meaning we get less innovation (and the is extremely bad for industries competing int he global market - See Zoll)
(5) Extra incentive to move some or even all operations overseas (see Haiti)
(6) Less Corporate Spending (a big chunk that drives the market is intercorporate spending! It dwarfs consumer spending. It will sharply go down)
Below is a list of publicly known impact on companies. You better believe all businesses big and small are feeling the impact directly, indirectly and with enough force to hurt everyone!
Estimate profit losses directly caused by Obamination:
AT&T to Book $1 Billion Cost on Health-Care Reform (Update3) - BusinessWeek
14 billion from U.S. corporate profits, according to an estimate by benefits consulting firm Towers Watson
Cost to S&P 500:
Dems Set to Bully Companies That Note ObamaCare's Costs
Analysts suggest that the total first-quarter hit to S&P 500 firms will be $4.5 billion.
Cost to John Deere:
First victims of Obamacare: John Deere, CAT, Verizon announce rise in health care costs
John Deere’s announced number is $150 million, over 10% of its profits.
Cost to the Medical Device Industry (forget about innovation!):
How Obamacare hits industry and threatens jobs | Washington Examiner
$20 billion hit for the medical device industry, meaning Zoll and other medical device makers could well be headed for hard times.
The total tax on the industry would be about $2 billion a year, or $20 billion over the next decade. Companies watched nervously as lawmakers pushed ahead
Cost to MA Zoll (ever wonder why MA voted for Brown and against Obamination Care? Zoll is a huge employer, this bill will hurt MA hard!):
. "How Obamacare hits industry and threatens jobs | Washington Examiner
"We believe that the tax will cost us somewhere between $5 million and $10 million a year," says Richard Packer, Zoll's chairman and chief executive officer
That would be a devastating blow. Zoll employs about 1,800 people. Roughly 1,600 of them are in the United States, and about 650 of those are in Massachusetts. Once the new tax kicks in, that could all change. "We can't run this company at a break-even or a negative rate," says Packer, "so we will be forced to look at alternatives."
The company's first option is to pass the increase on to customers like hospitals and ambulance companies. That might or might not work, given that they are coming under increasing pressure to cut their own costs.
The next option is to cut research and development -- a short-term, money-saving move that will surely cost Zoll down the road. And a third option, says Packer, is to "look at trying to shift jobs to lower-cost places around the world." That would be bad news for Massachusetts and the USA.
Cost to Caterpiller:
Caterpillar: Health care bill would cost it $100M - Chicago Breaking Business
The Peoria-based company said these provisions would increase its insurance costs by at least 20 percent, or more than $100 million, just in the first year of the health-care overhaul program.
"We can ill-afford cost increases that place us at a disadvantage versus our global competitors," said the letter signed by Gregory Folley, vice president and chief human resources officer of Caterpillar. "We are disappointed that efforts at reform have not addressed the cost concerns we've raised throughout the year."
Business executives have long complained that the options offered for covering 32 million uninsured Americans would result in higher insurance costs for those employers that already provide coverage. Opponents have stepped up their attacks in recent days as the House moves closer toward a vote on the Senate version of the health-care legislation.
Cost to AT&T:
AT&T: Obamacare Will Cost Us $1 Billion
AT&T is claiming a $1 billion Q1 2010 charge for the impact of health care reform on its business, according to CNBC.
Read more: AT&T: Obamacare Will Cost Us $1 Billion
Cost to 3M:
AT&T to Book $1 Billion Cost on Health-Care Reform (Update3) - BusinessWeek
3M, the St. Paul, Minnesota-based maker of products ranging from Post-It Notes to respiratory masks. 3M said it expects a one-time expense of $85 million to $90 million after tax, or about 12 cents a share, in the first quarter because of the new law, according to a statement. 3M had about 75,000 employees as of Feb. 5.
Effect on Verizon (not stated amount, but its significant):
AT&T to Book $1 Billion Cost on Health-Care Reform (Update3) - BusinessWeek
New York-based Verizon, the second-largest U.S. phone company, told employees in a note after the law was signed that the tax will make the subsidy less valuable to employers like Verizon and so “may have significant implications for both retirees and employers.”
RESPONSE - LEAVE US SOIL:
* Move to Haiti?/ AT&T, Verizon and others: Obamacare may have significant implications for both retirees and employers? Count Us Out
* Move to Haiti?/ AT&T, Verizon and others: Obamacare may have significant implications for both retirees and employers”
RESPONSE - BENEFITS CUT:
ObamaCare's Effects Are Already Showing - WSJ.com
While the drug tax subsidy is for retirees, companies consider their benefit costs as a total package. The new bill might cause some to drop retiree coverage altogether. Others may be bound by labor contracts to retirees, but then they will find other ways to cut costs. This means raising costs or reducing coverage for other employees. So much for Mr. Obama's claim that if you like your coverage, you can keep it—even at Fortune 500 companies.
In its employee note, Verizon also warned about the 40% tax on high-end health plans, though that won't take effect until 2018. "Many of the plans that Verizon offers to employees and retirees are projected to have costs above the threshold in the legislation and will be subject to the 40 percent excise tax." These costs will start to show up soon, and, as we repeatedly argued, the tax is unlikely to drive down costs. The tax burden will simply be spread to all workers—the result of the White House's too-clever decision to tax insurers, rather than individuals.
A Verizon spokesman said the company is merely addressing employee questions about ObamaCare, not making a political statement. But these and many other changes were enabled by the support of the Business Roundtable that counts Verizon as a member. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg's health-reform ideas are 180 degrees from Mr. Obama's, but Verizon's shareholders and 900,000 employees and retirees will still pay the price.
Businesses around the country are making the same calculations as Verizon and no doubt sending out similar messages. It's only a small measure of the destruction that will be churned out by the rewrite of health, tax, labor and welfare laws that is ObamaCare, and only the vanguard of much worse to come.
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