The Obamacare Job Graveyard

Just hours had passed since President Obama had won reelection, but it was time enough to comprehend what the inevitable implementation of Obamacare was going to do to the American workforce.  So we set about explaining how thousands of jobs were going to be lost, who was going to lose them, and why they were being eliminated. 

Now, with less than 40 days left before the process of full implementation of Obamacare begins, it seems important to update those losses. 

With that, we present you with the Obamacare graveyard – where good jobs go to die.  Some items are updates to past stories, some are new, all are devastating.

The Obamacare graveyard can effectively be broken down into three main areas. A section where jobs are killed, a section where hours are killed, and a section where coverage is killed.

That said, welcome to the graveyard…

Lost Jobs

Welch Allyn, a company that manufactures medical diagnostic equipment in central New York, laid off 275 employees this year, and planned on dropping roughly 10% of their workforce over the next three years.

“Health care reform mandates” are to blame for up to 400 jobs being dropped at Orlando Health.

One of the biggest medical device manufacturers in the world, Stryker confirmed 1,000 jobs were lost due to Obamacare.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center cited “the challenges of health care reform” while announcing the elimination of 950 jobs.

The medical device tax also claimed positions at Boston Scientific.  The company first announced in 2011 that they would be cutting between 1,200 and 1,400 positions.  Then in January of this year, they announced further layoffs for up to 1,000 employees.

Smith & Nephew, a global medical technology firm, dropped 100 employees.

A Blue Cross/Blue Shield health insurance office was closed, resulting in another 100 or so employees hitting the unemployment lines.  The reason? Complexities in federal regulations and mandates implemented by Obamacare.

In March of 2010, medical device maker Medtronic warned that Obamacare taxes could result in a reduction of precisely 1,000 jobs.  That plan became reality when the company cut 500 positions, and scheduled another 500 by the end of the fourth quarter in 2013.

Reading Hospital announced layoffs for 210 workers, and the elimination of another 181 jobs through attrition, citing federal health care reform requirements.

Abbott Laboratories announced a series of layoffs that would result in approximately 1,900 people being out of work.  The company cited “U.S. health-care reform and the challenging regulatory environment” as a reason for the job cuts, then proceeded to donate money to politicians wanting to change Obamacare.

Lost Hours

Public employees in Virginia fell victim to Obamacare’s rules for part-time workers.  A minimum of 7,380 jobs were converted to less than 30 hours per week.

The nation’s largest movie theater chain, Regal Entertainment, reduced the workweek for thousands of their employees.

Kroger, a grocery store chain, reduced the hours of their staff.

Taco Bell slashed employee hours.

As did Wendy’s, and also Denny’s.

An executive from White Castle pondered only hiring part-time workers in the future.

Subway chains, and Carl’s Jr. stores reduced positions to part-time.

Clothing retail chain, Forever 21, conducted staffing audits which resulted in non-management positions being reduced to 29.5 hours weekly.  Forever 21 has over 27,000 employees.

400 employees at the Community College of Allegheny County saw their hours reduced.

The Wall Street Journal reported that numerous universities were scaling back the number of hours worked per week by their adjunct professors, in an attempt to avoid the new Obamacare requirements.

Hours for over 100 people in the Fort Wayne Community School District in Indiana have been reduced, including substitutes and support staff.

Phone operators in Affordable Care Act call centers noted the irony in “working for a call center and trying to help people get health care” but only at a part-time rate … in order to avoid having to provide health insurance.

Lost Coverage

Repeatedly blaming Obamacare in a staff memo, UPS announced that 15,000 employee spouses are being dropped from their health insurance coverage.

Erick Erikson reported via Twitter that he had obtained an internal memo from Delta Airlines.  The memo stated that the company would have to totally revamp their health care plans, and had to eliminate a plan developed specifically for pilots due to it violating the Cadillac tax.

The University of Virginia is dropping coverage for spouses due to federal health reform costs and penalties.

The owner of Professional Finance Company indicated that he may have to drop coverage for his employee’s families.  The company employs 170 people.

Health insurance coverage is being reduced for school districts in Pennsylvania.

The United Methodist Church recently announced that “clergy and lay employees” would be losing their coverage.

Wegman’s, who had previously provided coverage for employees that worked 20 or more hours, announced they were no longer offering health insurance to part-time workers thanks to ObamaCare.

The Death Toll

It should be noted that all of these reports involve companies that have been forced to make changes for hundreds or thousands of their employees.  There are numerous other instances in which companies had planned to layoff tens, possibly dozens of their staff – instances which pile up under the President’s health care reform law.

It is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list.  But it is meant to provide examples of real companies, real jobs, and real names, soon to be added to the growing list of employment casualties provided by the inevitable implementation of Obamacare.

The NRCC also has a site called “Living Under Obamacare” that provides personalized stories of the onerous effects of the President’s reform law.  It puts real faces to the numbers we see above.

Ready or not, the Obamacare train wreck is coming down the tracks.  

How many more jobs will head to the graveyard?*

Follow Rusty on twitter @rustyweiss74

*If you know of an employer who has been forced to cut hours, coverage, or jobs, please email us at Brokenpromises@FreedomWorks.org.  We want to tell these stories. 

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