Follow up to posting about McDonalds health care plan

[Ted King]

A while back there was a thread about McDonalds health insurance with some people having the impression (thanks in no small part to misleading information from the Wall Street Journal) that McDonalds' employees would lose their insurance due to the ACA (Affordable Care Act). First, it was shown that that assertion was not true, and second, it was shown that the plan is a really crap plan anyway.

Here's some information that shows that once the ACA kicks in more fully in 2014, McDonalds' employees will be WAY better off than they are now (it doesn't fully kick in until 2014 because, once again, timid Blue Dog Democrats pushed for the delay):

http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpr...n-the-nyt/

Right now a worker at McDonalds is paying $32 a week, or $1664 a year, for a plan that caps out at $10,000 a year. Let’s assume we’re considering a single male worker, age 27, who lives in a state where non-pregnant adults are not eligible for Medicaid (like most states). Let’s also consider a range of salaries that this person might be making, from minimum wage up to $12 an hour (which is high for McDonalds). Here’s what things might look like for him in 2014 compared to now, if he took his free choice voucher and went to the exchange (2014 dollars):

Per hour salary Annual premium
$ 7.25 $ -
$ 9.00 $ 858.00
$ 10.00 $ 1,030.00
$ 11.00 $ 1,429.00
$ 12.00 $ 1,720.00

[Sorry I can't get the chart to look right - the number farther to the left in each row is the hourly wage and the number to the right in the same row is the annual premium.]

A minimum wage worker would qualify for Medicaid under PPACA in 2014. So his premium would be nothing. Total win for him there.

People making $9-$11 an hour would pay less each year than they are for their McDonalds mini-med plan right now. Less. If the worker is paid $12 an hour, they will wind up paying $56 dollars more per year, or just over a dollar more per week.

But they will have real insurance. Their yearly cap won’t be $10,000; yearly caps will be gone. So will lifetime caps. And the coverage will be much more robust.

Moreover, workers under 27 can get on their family’s plans.

[cbelt3]

While informative (and I LOVE when the interviewee can publicly post what he actually said to the tool of the media mogul who twisted his words.. YEAH INTERNET !!!), the actual read of the rates that will be charged to the McDonalds employees under the Healthcare act are absent. Why ? Because nobody knows what will happen.

We're in wild speculation until the actual rates come calling... and they're coming calling in the next couple of months to most Americans with healthcare.

You can also expect a whole raft of lawsuits and 'investigations' of the insurance company rates starting, oh heck, even now.

I wish there was a real dialogue with real data about healthcare costs, with proper numbers and statistics. All we've got now, and in the past, are worst case scenarios or best case scenarios. And hyperbole and hysteria.. don't forget the hysteria.

Ah, who am I kidding. This is UhMerican Politics. :patriot:

[OWC Jamie]

yeah, blame the blue dogs because no single raindrop wants to take the blame for the flood.
Like the lobbyists greased only their palms ...

[lafinfil]

[RgrF]

Without help from Blue Dogs, Republicans wouldn't have been able to sabotage the original bill.

[Ted King]

cbelt3 wrote:
While informative (and I LOVE when the interviewee can publicly post what he actually said to the tool of the media mogul who twisted his words.. YEAH INTERNET !!!), the actual read of the rates that will be charged to the McDonalds employees under the Healthcare act are absent. Why ? Because nobody knows what will happen.

We're in wild speculation until the actual rates come calling... and they're coming calling in the next couple of months to most Americans with healthcare.

The author specifically said he was comparing what McDonalds employees pay now to what they would pay if the took the free choice vouchers in 2014. But do you really really think by 2014 McDonalds is going to be offering their employees anything remotely close to a policy that offers no yearly or lifelong caps for much less to almost the same cost to employee? I don't think its anything like wild speculation to say "hell no".

I will admit that I may have misunderstood your point because the way you expressed yourself was, for me, very difficult to decipher.

[Ted King]

lafinfil wrote:

Thanks lafinfil. Did you take a screenshot and then post it to photobucket and then link it to here? I was too lazy to go to all that work. :-)

[Grace62]

Thanks for posting that Ted.

[Bill in NC]

Somebody still has to pay for that 'free' (to the McDs worker) health care.

And eliminating lifetime caps could make it even more expensive:

How will the ACA address those whose disease didn't respond to the fourth round of treatment but still want more even though their doctor(s) wanted to refer them to Hospice months ago?

Does that 'no lifetime cap' force plans to pay for continued treatment when none of the treating physicians think it will have any benefit?

Do we follow evidence-based medicine or give into the hysteria over 'death panels' and end up with a few dozen (breathtakingly expensive) Motl Brody cases a year?

[lafinfil]

Ted King wrote:
[quote=lafinfil]

Thanks lafinfil. Did you take a screenshot and then post it to photobucket and then link it to here? I was too lazy to go to all that work. :-)

You are welcome. I always have SnapNDrag handy for screen shots and I already had PB loaded too.