Need Help with Obamacare

[Vietnameravet]

Some righties are telling me that Obamacare will add another 5 or 6 % to the cost of their restaurant tabs. Like so much of what they say I believe its bullshit but cannot find evidence to show that..

I think the burden of proving this should be on them but we all know how this works.,.they make a charge and it's assumed true until we can disprove it..and then they just make another..

But nevertheless there are a few guys that are open minded and concerned about this and I want to tell them what the real truth is..

Can someone help me out on this?

Thanks!


And PS Yes I do call it Obamacare...i know that was originally a term of derision but to me it's something he can be proud of..not perfect but certainly something that the President can be proud of..in spite of conservative efforts to smear both him and the bill..

[Fumesucker]

1. Here's the story..

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/11/dennys-pancakes-with-a-side-of-obamacare-tax-not-yet/

[Vietnameravet]

2. thanks but

is there someway of knowing how much extra these restaurants will have to pay?

[Fumesucker]

4. That's well beyond my pay grade I'm sad to say

I don't even know for sure how the ACA effects me yet, it all seems remarkably confusing.

My guess though is that they will cut the hours of their employees to the point they don't have to pay anything.

[krispos42]

6. Papa John's CEO said 14¢ per pizza

Which is about 1%. If the owners of Denny's are charging 6%, I suspect the other 5 points are going into their hedge-fund portfolios.

[handmade34]

7. no way to accurately say

but the opposition to Obamacare sure makes it easy to justify price increases (my take is that any increase is a small price to pay for better access to health care for our friends and neighbors)

"...of course, Metz could write off the cost of insurance against profits. (His businesses are doing quite well.) Meanwhile his largesse would return benefits to his business: studies show that when employees have access to health care, absenteeism falls and productivity rises.

Update: Since making that statement Metz, whose company owns more than 30 Denny’s locations, heard from Denny’s corporate headquarters. Yesterday, Huffington Post reported that Denny’s “CEO John Miller privately reached out to Metz to express his ‘disappointment’” with the Florida franchisee’s controversial statements about Obamacare –which sparked a wave of backlash for the national restaurant chain over the past few days.” Customers were threatening to boycott. Other franchisees were furious: Metz’s grandstanding on Fox was costing them business.

Monday night Metz expressed ‘regret’ over his statements. He added: “We have always been and will continue to be 100 percent dedicated to our employees and customers and will work tirelessly to find solutions that are in their best interests. It is our intention is to fully comply with the law.”

What is certain is that Metz greatly exaggerated the burden that Obamacare places on employers. As I explain below, companies outside the health care industry will pay a very small share of the total cost of funding the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

http://www.healthbeatblog.com/2012/11/can-u-s-businesses-afford-obamacare-2/

[NMDemDist2]

3. if restraurant owners choose to pass along the costs

it may raise the prices at the diner a bit. however there is nothing in the law/bill that imposes a charge on any businesses

[handmade34]

5. yes, that is what they are threatening

"According to a Florida restaurateur who operates roughly 40 Denny’s locations and 5 Hurricane Grill & Wings franchises in Florida, Virginia and Georgia intends to add a 5 percent surcharge to customers’ bills to offset costs from ObamaCare beginning in January 2014 when the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented..."

But, "...some analysts believe companies may use health care as an excuse to raise prices, even if the added costs don’t warrant the increase..."

Jon Stewart's take on it...
http://www.politicususa.com/jon-stewart-blasts-greedy-employers-obamacare-excuse-layoffs.html

"Guys, I get it. Providing healthcare benefits to employees costs money, and as a group you tend to prefer things that don’t cost that. I watch Undercover Boss. But own your layoffs, and your policies. Let’s stop pretending that with this election bosses have been transformed into reluctant a**holes. Obamacare is just the latest excuse to rig the social contract. For many years now, full time benefits like sick days, maternity leave, pensions, lunch hours, chairs have disappeared by magically transforming full time workers into independent contractors or part time twenty year temp help.

Want to avoid paying half of your employees’ Social Security tax? Reclassify them as independent contractors, so they pay it all themselves. Make them fill out a 1099. That’s not a full time busboy. That’s Juanco L.L.C. Don’t forget to invoice us, Juanco. So let’s cut the, I’d love to give employees, I just can’t. Let’s face the facts. Pizza and coal companies are just unlucky enough to have a labor force that can’t be outsourced. You happen to be in one of the few industries that still has to hire Americans. I’m sure if you could outsource your pizza making to China, Papa Johns would quickly become Papa Sans. Which is actually Japan, but for the joke, you understand. It’s your fault. You could have gone tech Papa John’s, founded Instagram and made a billion dollars. But instead, you make pizzas with a filter that makes them taste like their from 1979..."

[GoCubsGo]

8. And, a further reply...

So, your Grand Slam breakfast and a cup of coffee run you, what, six or seven bucks? Let's say it's seven bucks. %5 of $7 is 35 cents. That's a small price to pay to insure your waitress can go see a doctor when she's sick, rather than staying here and possibly giving whatever disease she has to you. And, if you can't afford to pay an extra 35 for a meal, then you can't afford to eat out in the first place. Furthermore, if you don't like the price hike, find somewhere else to eat, where owners aren't such petty, selfish dicks.

[PoliticAverse]

9. Basically they might have to pay $2,000 additional per employee...

From: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Questions-and-Answers-on-Employer-Shared-Responsibility-Provisions-Under-the-Affordable-Care-Act

In 2014, if an employer employs enough employees to be subject to the Employer Shared Responsibility provisions and does not offer coverage during the calendar year to at least 95% of its full-time employees, it owes an Employer Shared Responsibility payment equal to the number of full-time employees the employer employed for the year (minus 30) multiplied by $2,000, as long as at least one full-time employee receives the premium tax credit.

What percentage this increases costs depends on what the restaurant's total costs are.