The morning after, now what?

[Ratickle]

GVSU Study: 1,000 jobs lost due to Obamacare

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) -- A new study from Grand Valley State University says The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has prevented employers from adding at least 1,000 workers.

Grand Valley economics professors Leslie Muller and Paul Isely, in collaboration with Priority Health, surveyed area employers about the ACA in Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon and Allegan Counties. "Firms are choosing not to hire more workers in reaction to the Affordable Care Act," said Muller. "Conservatively, there would be 1,000 more workers today in Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon and Allegan counties if not for the ACA."

Muller says the survey does not take into account employers who have made workers part-time to avoid costs associated with Obamacare.

The study also found:

93% of companies with 50 or more employees currently offer health care.

49% have already passed additional health care costs to workers and 40% are considering that option.

30% of firms in West Michigan are uncertain about offering health insurance in 2015.

http://www.wzzm13.com/(X(1)A(x5AtC3O...-to-Obamacare-

[Ratickle]

Americans who lost their health insurance thanks to Obamacare now face sticker shock when buying new plans

Wednesday, January 15, 2014 by: J. D. Heyes


As reported by The Associated Press, this scenario is repeating itself all over the country:

Dean Griffin liked the health insurance he purchased for himself and his wife three years ago and thought he'd be able to keep the plan even after the federal Affordable Care Act took effect.

But the 64-year-old recently received a letter notifying him the plan was being canceled because it didn't cover certain benefits required under the law.

The Griffins, who are retired and live near Philadelphia along the Delaware border, were paying $770 a month for a plan that had a $2,500 deductible. Under Obamacare, however, their plan didn't include minimum coverage levels and requirements. The government, you see, is now deciding what kind of health coverage you must carry; that's what Obamacare does.

But under the Obamacare exchange in Pennsylvania, the closest plan they could afford was a "Bronze" plan costing more than $1,200 and with deductibles in excess of $25,000.

A little compassion, anyone?

Dean Griffin knows exactly what the law is forcing him and his wife to do: Subsidize other people by being forced to purchase a product they don't want and can't use.

"We're buying insurance that we will never use and can't possibly ever benefit from. We're basically passing on a benefit to other people who are not otherwise able to buy basic insurance," he told AP.

Well, the Griffins are among the millions of other Americans who are being dropped by their health insurance companies because their plans don't meet government-mandated coverage. And getting comparable plans at the same levels of coverage, price and deductibles is proving impossible.

The problem is economics. You cannot buy more coverage for less money.

As for the Griffins, and others like them:

They can buy different policies directly from insurers for 2014 or sign up for plans on state insurance exchanges. While lower-income people could see lower costs because of government subsidies, many in the middle class may get rude awakenings when they access the websites and realize they'll have to pay significantly more.

'I feel like they're forcing me into this'

Because of the higher plan costs - which, by the way, the president said would decline for working families by about $2,500 a year - the Griffins will do what scores of others plan to do next year: Forego health insurance altogether and simply pay the mandated fine (oh yes, that's part of Obamacare too - if you don't buy what the government tells you to buy, you get fined).

That fine will be about $100 - or 1 percent of income.

They will join the vast majority of uninsured Americans who have also said they won't use the Obamacare exchanges.

Ken Davis, who manages a fast food restaurant in Austin, Texas, told the AP that he, too, is suffering sticker shock.

His $100-per-month, employer-provided plan has been canceled too and replaced by a plan that will cost him $600 a month (and that's after a $500 taxpayer-provided subsidy).

"I feel like they're forcing me to do something that I don't want to do or need to do," he said.

http://www.naturalnews.com/043525_he...er_shock.html#

[poncho]

Its the biggest single tax increase ever imposed in the world. Like all major tax grabs it will have major consequences. I'm betting consumer spending will nose dive. What little recovery being made currently will die. The economy will collapse in 2014, plunging the U.S into depression.

[Bobcat]

All part of the Cloward-Piven dream

[fund razor]

What would make me really concerned is if like a year before they rolled this out they tried to disarm the middle class.

Oh, wait...

[fund razor]

How much of the 1.1 trillion that the Precedent spent today out of our grandchildren's way of life is going to Egypt?
A billion?

[Ratickle]

The US administration is closely watching the results of Egypt’s referendum, but has not yet decided whether to unfreeze some $1.5 billion in aid to its military-installed leaders, a US official said on Thursday.

A broad federal spending bill, which has passed the House of Representatives but is still being debated in the Senate, authorises Washington to send a first tranche of $975 million to Egypt.

But US Secretary of State John Kerry first has to certify that the current leaders have held a constitutional referendum and are taking steps to support a democratic transition.

A further $576 million in aid would flow if and when Egypt holds parliamentary and presidential elections and Kerry certifies the new government is governing democratically.

[poncho]

Obama was pretty open about his youth smoking marijuana in an interview. Says its no more dangerous then alcohol. Only problem I have with marijuana is its sole purpose is to get high. And that is mediocre. You don't hear such and such wine will get you more drunk. I say a big difference exist between marijuana and alcohol. The latter get be enjoyed in many forms without getting even a buzz. I remember when a kid, we smoked marijuana and judged it solely on how high you got from it. Danger is you'll get people addicted to the high more so then alcohol in that regard it is more dangerous.

[fund razor]

Obama was pretty open about his youth smoking marijuana in an interview. Says its no more dangerous then alcohol. Only problem I have with marijuana is its sole purpose is to get high. And that is mediocre. You don't hear such and such wine will get you more drunk. I say a big difference exist between marijuana and alcohol. The latter get be enjoyed in many forms without getting even a buzz. I remember when a kid, we smoked marijuana and judged it solely on how high you got from it. Danger is you'll get people addicted to the high more so then alcohol in that regard it is more dangerous.

I really like you for a guy that I have never met. But that's a pile of crap.

[Bobcat]

[poncho]

I really like you for a guy that I have never met. But that's a pile of crap.

Gee thanks!!! But recreational drugs are nothing more then people getting high and that is mediocre. Against legalizing drugs but hoping our politicians keep prostitution legal.

[poncho]

I'm a hypocrite!!!! Only thing former Canadian prime minister Trudeau said that I agree with is the government doesn't belong in the bedroom. And that should include money for sex between two adults!!!!! Same should apply to someone wanting to get high.

[Bobcat]

Wall Street adviser: Actual unemployment is 37.2%, 'misery index' worst in 40 years
BY PAUL BEDARD | JANUARY 21, 2014 AT 1:08 PM

TOPICS: WASHINGTON SECRETS JOBS TREASURY ECONOMY FEDERAL RESERVE INFLATION WALL STREET UNEMPLOYMENT
.

In a memo to clients provided to Secrets, David John Marotta calculates the actual unemployment rate of those not working at a sky-high 37.2 percent, not the 6.7 percent advertised by the Fed, and the Misery Index at over 14, not the 8 claimed by the government.

Marotta, who recently advised those worried about an imploding economy to get a gun, said that the government isn't being honest in how it calculates those out of the workforce or inflation, the two numbers used to get the Misery Index figure.

Sign Up for the Paul Bedard newsletter!
“The unemployment rate only describes people who are currently working or looking for work,” he said. That leaves out a ton more.

“Unemployment in its truest definition, meaning the portion of people who do not have any job, is 37.2 percent. This number obviously includes some people who are not or never plan to seek employment. But it does describe how many people are not able to, do not want to or cannot find a way to work. Policies that remove the barriers to employment, thus decreasing this number, are obviously beneficial,” he and colleague Megan Russell in their new investors note from their offices in Charlottesville, Va.

They added that “officially-reported unemployment numbers decrease when enough time passes to discourage the unemployed from looking for work. A decrease is not necessarily beneficial; an increase is clearly detrimental.”

Then there is the Misery Index, which is a calculation based in inflation and unemployment, both numbers the duo say are underscored by the government. He said that the Index doesn’t properly calculate how Uncle Sam is propping up the economy with bond purchases and other actions.

“These tricks, along with a host of other dubious accounting schemes, underreport inflation by about 3 percent,” they wrote, adding that the official inflation rate is just 1.24 percent.

“Today, the Misery Index would be 7.54 using official numbers,” they wrote. But if calculations tabulating the full national unemployment including discouraged workers, which is 10.2 percent, and the historical method of calculating inflation, which is now 4.5 percent, ‘the current misery index is closer to 14.7, worse even than during the Ford administration.”

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.

[fund razor]

First time in 14 years that a president or vice-president haven't attended the Olympics.

They say it's for gay rights.

I would have accepted "we're scared chitless."

[poncho]

First time in 14 years that a president or vice-president haven't attended the Olympics.

They say it's for gay rights.

I would have accepted "we're scared chitless."

I don't remember if Biden came to Vancouver in 2010 or not.

[fund razor]

I don't remember if Biden came to Vancouver in 2010 or not.

He was the clearly memorable head of the delegation.

[Bobcat]

"A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications."
~Tim Robbins

[Bobcat]

This is who runs Bathhouse Barry

[poncho]

Had to look it up. Biden was at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. We used to get Bill Clinton in town a lot. It was rumored he had a mistress here.

[fund razor]

Had to look it up. Biden was at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

I read that somewhere. May have been three posts back.