Part-Timers Losing Health Insurance May Want To Thank Their Companies
Part-Timers Losing Health Insurance May Want To Thank Their Companies
By Rick Newman | The Exchange – Fri, Sep 20, 2013 5:03 PM EDT
How terrible. Home Depot (HD) and Trader Joe’s have decided to stop offering health insurance for part-time employees, moving them over to Obamacare instead. More companies seem sure to follow. And more wailing about greedy, heartless corporations is sure to follow that. Some workers may start to drop dead from sheer anxiety before Obamacare even goes into effect on January 1.
Once the new health law has been in place for a few months, however, Part-Time America may issue a collective sigh of relief. Nobody ever held up today’s part-time "mini-med" plans as model coverage. The majority of part-time workers don’t even get health insurance, and those who do typically get diluted plans with limited benefits they still have to pay something for. “You have to question whether that’s really insurance,” says Paul Fronstin, director of the health research program at the Employee Benefits Research institute. “They may not cover prescription drugs, and if you get cancer or end up in the hospital, they probably won’t help you a whole lot.”
Insurance offered under the Affordable Care Act, by contrast, could end up being a much better deal. Obamacare is complicated, and it will require many people to do detailed research on their insurance options instead of having an employer do it for them. There have also been elaborate efforts by foes of the program to depict it as The Ruination of Everything. So it’s not surprising that part-timers being told their employer is cutting them loose and sending them over to Obamacare are a little jumpy.
Actually enrolling could calm them down, however. Obamacare was designed to make decent health insurance affordable for people who otherwise can’t afford it, and whether you love or hate the program, it seems likely to succeed at that basic mission. That’s because the program subsidizes the cost of insurance based on your income, with the largest subsidies going to those with the lowest incomes.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/part-timers-losing-healthcare-insurance-may-want-thank-210354500.html
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My employer didn't have enough respect for me to provide any explanation so I don't know if it was ACA related or just seasonal. 
Seems odd that it would be different than part time status, but I'm willing to take your word for it. Still pisses me off to lose almost a quarter of my meager income with no explanation. 
He has worked there 40 hrs. a week for a long time. Now he is being cut to a less than 30 hr. work week and he will no longer be able to get the insurance once Obamacare kicks in and yes, that Co-op is unionized (you'd never know it would you?)!
He's just a tad bit p/o'd to say the very least (not that I blame him).
He voted for Obama X2 and feels like he's been "hoodwinked" as he put it.
Not good, not good at all, esp. if you happen to have a pre-existing condition as this young man does!
Something is very wrong with this picture!
He was really irritated and to make matters worse for him, he didn't know how he'd be able to make a go of it on a paycheck cutting his hours back so much. I don't think he earns much at that place which I don't particularly care for myself (they tend to sell old food hoping that you won't notice). 
As I stated in a previous post, I don't particularly care for this Co-op.
They are cutting everything and raising prices on everything (apples at close to $5.00 a lb.!).
They have another store in an adjacent town and the last time I was in that place I was accused of shop lifting! 
After that happened, my husband was really p.o.'d about it and said to the manager of this other (same) store that we won't be shopping here any more.
That said, I try not to shop at this place but I'm quite limited as to what I can and cannot do.
Still the same, you've nailed it, this Co-op sucks! 
As for the young man (that I've become rather friendly to-wards), I feel sorry for him and have advised him to seek employment elsewhere. I'm sure the local Safeway would hire him and there are other stores too like COSTCO.
Sick greedy SOB's are who own this store and as for the shoplifting thing, they actually printed a newspaper recently and told about all of the shoplifting that is going on and how some of the biggest "criminals" are people that are over the age of 55 (as I am and as my husband is ... and as for my husband, he's about blind ... how the hell could he steal something?).
To add insult to injury, they've cut their senior citizen discount day from 10% off once a week to 5% off once a week and oh yeah, now they demand a photo ID when you are checking out if you ask to use your piddly assed 5% "discount". Big damn deal that is with apples at $5.00 a lb.!!! 
And furthermore, they've also changed their policy. It used to be if you were age 60 or over you would qualify for the "old age discount" as my husband calls it (he hates having to use it!). Now they've upped that to age 65!
They piss me off and no, I don't shop there much any more!!
END OF RANT!!!