Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Obamacare: Driving Up Costs And Driving Down Those Insured
Obamacare: Driving Up Costs And Driving Down Those Insured
Jan 2, 2026 5:38 PM

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
Economic Justice IS Social Justice
All good people are concerned about the plight of the poor, and there are a multitude of ways to address this. The umbrella of “social justice” seems to get bigger every year, with Millenium Development Goals, the ONE campaign, and a host of other foreign aid projects that seek to remove the scourge of abject poverty. However, many of these projects overlook one fact: foreign aid doesn’t work. As PovertyCure‘s Michael Miller has said, While there are some success stories,...
Here’s an Early Christmas Present for You
You don’t have to wait till Christmas to get your present from the Acton Institute. Just head over to Amazon and get a your free Kindle download of the new book, A Field Guide to the Hero’s Journey. The book, co-authored by Jeff Sandefer and Rev. Robert Sirico, has been called a “the modern ‘how-to’ for entrepreneurs working on plishing big things” by Andreas Widmer, and is a terrific book not only for adults but for young people. The Kindle...
Hobby Lobby Denied Request For HHS Mandate Relief
The National Catholic Register and Associated Press are reporting that Justice Sonia Sotomayor has denied Hobby Lobby (and a pany, Mardel, Inc.) its request to opt out of the HHS mandate to provide abortifacients as health care to employees. Justice Sotomayor’s decision stated that Hobby Lobby did not meet the legal standard for preventing them plying with the government mandate. However, David Green, CEO and owner of Hobby Lobby disagrees, saying the lawsuit violates his family’s faith. The Becket Fund...
The Year in Commentary: Samuel Gregg
Every Wednesday we publish the Acton Commentary,a weekly article that covers topics related to Acton’s mission. As es to a close I thought it would be worth highlighting the mentaries that have been produced by Acton Institute staffers over the past year. The following list includes articles published in 2012 by Dr. Samuel Gregg, director of research at the Acton Institute: January 18, 2012 The Problem with Compassionate Conservatism March 07, 2012 The American Left’s European Nightmare March 14, 2012...
The Year in Commentary: Jordan J. Ballor
Every Wednesday we publish the Acton Commentary,a weekly article that covers topics related to Acton’s mission. As es to a close I thought it would be worth highlighting the mentaries that have been produced by Acton Institute staffers over the past year. The following list includes articles published in 2012 by Dr. Jordan J. Ballor, Acton research fellow and executive editor of the Journal of Markets & Morality: January 11, 2012 Ministers of Common Grace February 15, 2012 Corrupted Capitalism...
Life-Long Learners or Good Test-Takers? An Orthodox Christian Critique
The video below of a second grade teacher in Providence, RI reading his letter of resignation has recently gone semi-viral with over 200,000 views on YouTube. What I would like to offer here is an Orthodox Christian critique of the anthropological assumptions that separate this teacher from the “edu-crats,” as he terms them, who in his district so strongly championed standardized testing-oriented education at the exclusion of all other methods and aims. In the Orthodox Christian tradition, there is an...
Conference: ‘Catholic Witness in a Nation Divided’
Ave Maria Communications will be presenting a conference on Saturday, January 13, 2013 entitled “Catholic Witness in a Nation Divided.” The conference, hosted by Al Kresta, CEO of Ave Maria Communications and host of “Kresta in the Afternoon”, will be held at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI. The conference hopes to address faith and cultural issues facing Catholics today: The focus will be ecclesial, that is church focused not politically focused… If the Church and its membership and its...
The Year in Commentary: Rev. Robert A. Sirico
Every Wednesday we publish the Acton Commentary, a weekly article that covers topics related to Acton’s mission. As es to a close I thought it would be worth highlighting the mentaries that have been produced by Acton Institute staffers over the past year. The following list includes articles published in 2012 by Rev. Robert A. Sirico, co-founder and president of the Acton Institute: July 04, 2012 Creative Destruction and the Pruning Shears September 19, 2012 The Collapse of Europe’s Welfare...
The Year in Commentary: Anthony B. Bradley
Every Wednesday we publish the Acton Commentary,a weekly article that covers topics related to Acton’s mission. As es to a close I thought it would be worth highlighting the mentaries that have been produced by Acton Institute staffers over the past year. The following list includes articles published in 2012 by Dr. Anthony B. Bradley, a research fellow at the Acton Institute.: January 25, 2012 Despite Economic and Social Ills, Blacks Give Obama a Pass February 29, 2012 Corn Subsidies...
The Christ Child and a Culture of Birth
In this day after Christmas edition of Acton Commentary, I take a look at the message the Christ child brings to us, particularly in terms of promoting a culture of birth. In “The Hopes and Fears of All the Years,” I note that “Where evil leaves us speechless, God speaks the Word of hope and salvation.” The Italian greeting Buon Natale captures this a bit better than the English, “Merry Christmas.” It struck me that this Christmas season, especially given...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved