Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Obamacare: Driving Up Costs And Driving Down Those Insured
Obamacare: Driving Up Costs And Driving Down Those Insured
Dec 11, 2025 1:42 AM

Delta Airlines has announced that it foresees a spike in health care costs for pany to the tune of $100 million a year. A Delta executive, Robert Kight, has said that fees associated with Obamacare will be costly, but won’t likely be more beneficial than what pany’s employees now have.

One of the costly items pertains to an annual fee of $63 per “covered participant” next year. pany estimates this means a more than $10 million expense in 2014. The catch for Delta is that, because many of their employees insure through Delta, the fee meant to help subsidize the health care law’s coverage amounts to a “direct subsidy” from pany that provides “zero direct benefit to our participants,” Kight said.

Another added es from the requirement to cover children and young adults on parents’ plans until they’re 26 years old. Kight reports that the change led to 8,000 more people being added to their rolls, at an annual cost of $14 million.

Further, the individual mandate — or the requirement on individuals to obtain health insurance — is expected to drive more people into pany plan and drive up their costs by another $14 million.

es just after the announcement from UPS and the University of Virginia that they are both dropping spousal insurance for their employees due to the cost of Obamacare. UPS told its employees:

Since the Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide affordable coverage, we believe your spouse should be covered by their own employer — just as U.P.S. has a responsibility to offer coverage to you, our employee.”

“In an effort to maintain premiums at or below current cost,” Andrew McGowan, a U.P.S. spokesman, said, “U.P.S. made a change that affects a limited number of employees.”

This plan affects about one-quarter of the UPS workforce in the U.S.

While the University of Virginia has been a supporter of Obamacare, the $7 million per year spousal support was expected to add to their budget proved to be too much of a burden for the school.

Along with cuts to family insurance plans, Obamacare is forcing many businesses to cut employee hours, especially in the food service industry. The Economist says that Obamacare isn’t a healthy plan for our nation at all:

…Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago contends that Obamacare’s distortions to the labour market will outweigh any growth from lowering health costs…Mr Mulligan predicts that Americans will work 3% less in 2015 than they otherwise would have.

Interestingly, the number of jobs in sectors most affected by Obamacare, such as retail, leisure and hospitality, have grown relatively quickly, notes Alec Phillips of Goldman Sachs. But the hours worked in such industries have grown more slowly, suggesting a reluctance to add more full-time jobs.

When the final diagnosis is done, Obamacare may have nasty side-effects.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
There Are No Alternatives to Free Market Capitalism
Exploring Catholic social teaching in relation to economics is fine, but if we’re too open-minded about seeking a new mon good” capitalism, our brains might fall out. Read More… Alexander William Salter’s new book, The Political Economy of Distributism: Property, Liberty, and the Common Good, is an odd fish. It begs questions, contains numerous chapters that consist mostly of lengthy quotations, and at times seems to contradict itself, yet in the end it affirms an essential truth that we may...
European Union Demands Immediate Release of Jimmy Lai
Growing concerns over deteriorating human rights situation in Hong Kong, and the persecution of political dissidents, prompt EU’s call for immediate action. Read More… The European Parliament condemned the persecution of jailed newspaper publisher and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, calling for his immediate and unconditional release from prison and the repeal of Hong Kong’s national security law (NSL), in a resolution passed on June 15, according to Voice of America. The resolution passed with 483 votes in favor, 9 against,...
Spreading the Flame: The Pioneering Ministry of William Grimshaw
The 18th-century evangelical revival is believed to have saved England from a revolution akin to France’s. Among the lesser-known names who brought gospel hope to classes alienated from the church was a man whose tenacity at saving souls made almost as many enemies as friends. Read More… We have discussed so far the nature of the 18th-century evangelical revival in Britain through the eyes of the most well-known names, John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield. From the 1740s munities...
This Fathers’ Day, Remember that Property Is Holy
What can a Christian socialist teach us about being a father and faithful steward of God the Father’s gifts? Plenty. Read More… The French Revolution of 1848, which began on February 22 in Paris, led to the fall of the July Monarchy in France, the founding of the Second Republic, a wave of democratic revolutions across Europe, a revival of European liberalism, and the spread of various forms of socialism. Once again, just as in 1789, the old order of...
Freedom of Religion Is Inherently Good
In many parts of the world, and even among some thinkers in the United States, freedom of conscience is seen as a threat to order and decency. But free choice, especially in religion, aligns perfectly with our free wills and is necessary for true human flourishing. Read More… Growing up in Yemen, a conservative branch of Islam was ‎very popular in my household, school, and mosque. Freedom of ‎religion was a myth frowned upon. It was thought that Islam ‎is...
Can Fraternities Save America?
There’s a movement afoot to abolish Greek life nationwide. But what if frats are actually great places to form virtue and character in young men and not just reboots of Animal House? Read More… Dr. Anthony Bradley is on a quest to make fraternities virtuous again. “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever done,” he tells me. “I’m essentially bailing out water on the sinking Titanic.” The problem he’s confronting is well engrained in American culture and media: a quick...
A Culinary Introduction to the Devout Life
Want to be more disciplined in your spiritual life? Chow down with the saints. Taste and see that it is good. Read More… es a time when you yearn to live out your faith more deeply. This can mean different things for different believers, but it usually entails taking up a variety of personal disciplines, returning to tradition, mitting oneself to prayer and introspection. For harried souls making our way in a hectic, secularized world, an idealized spiritual life is...
Bridging the Church-State Divide
This sixth installment of a short history passionate conservatism explores what it meant to finally get into the White House and see policies implemented. Skepticism was not in short supply. Read More… In 2000, I didn’t realize until it was too late that my astronomically exaggerated proximity to presidential candidate George W. Bush would make me a target. For example, I had said in 1998 that women volunteers had run charitable enterprises in the 19th century, so women’s entrance into...
Jimmy Lai Appeals National Security Committee Decision—Again
Lai’s legal team is arguing that mittee’s decision, which directly affects his personal freedoms and the rights of Hong Kong citizens, should be subject to judicial review. Read More… Jimmy Lai, the imprisoned Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy activist, has lodged an appeal after his previous attempt to challenge a decision made by the National Security Committee was rejected, according to the Hong Kong Free Press. The high-profile entrepreneur and former Apple Daily publisher is seeking to overturn mittee’s...
Is Christianity Special?
A new book seeks to counter the trend in academia and pop literature to depict American history as a relentless trampling of human rights by an intolerant Christianity. But does the counteroffensive prove America’s essentially Christian—and liberal in the best sense—character? Read More… Mark David Hall’s Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land: How Christianity Has Advanced Freedom and Equality for All Americans defends the role of Christianity in American history against critics who either deny its influence or assert that...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved