Universal Orlando part-time workers to lose healthcare

[CF DolFan]

It will be interesting to see where everyone stands on the new healthcare laws in a few years.  Increased taxes and rising costs always get pushed down to the little people.  My middle class self is paying higher taxes this year and increased medical costs to go along with another year of no raise. This has been over 5 years that things have increased but our salaries have not. 

Universal Orlando part-time workers to lose healthcare
Theme park says it can no longer offer plan due to federal law

ORLANDO, Fla. -
Hundreds of workers at Universal Orlando will lose their healthcare in 2014, the theme park announced on Tuesday.

The part-time employees are currently offered a limited insurance plan that includes caps on coverage.  But starting next year, those types of plans are no longer allowed under the federal health care overhaul passed by Congress.

The theme park has thousands of part-time workers but says about 500 take advantage of the coverage and will be affected by the change.

Universal says it's continuing to go over its options.  Disney and SeaWorld offer similar health plans, but so far have not announced any cuts.

Watch Local 6 News and stay with ClickOrlando.com for more on this story.

[Phishfan]

I'm rather surprised to hear of part time workers with a health plan. I never heard of that before.

[SCFinfan]

I'm rather surprised to hear of part time workers with a health plan. I never heard of that before.

See, the free market is not necessarily always the boogeyman!

[Spider-Dan]

I wouldn't quite say that this is supposed to happen, but it's definitely not an unintended consequence.

By design, these people should be funneled into the healthcare exchanges, where (as part-time workers) they should be able to replace their marginally-adequate employer-provided healthcare with more full-featured healthcare, with ACA subsidies making up the difference.

The previous free market system (coupled with a federal mandate for emergency services provided to anyone that needs them) simply did not work.  The only solutions were a) get rid of the mandate for emergency services for those unable to pay or b) overhaul the "free market" part of the system.  Not many people are willing to advocate for option a.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

The theme park has thousands of employees that are eligible for the plan yet only five hundred enrolled.  That should tell you something about the quality of the program.  Universal is no longer allowed to offer such shitty healthcare to its works, so it is discontinuing the program.  *Forcing* the employees to enroll in the better program mandated by the federal goverment. 

The employees are not losing health care.  They are just changing plans. 

[Phishfan]

^^^ I'm not sure about that. Are part time workers included in the government's plan?

[Spider-Dan]

You aren't exempt from the individual mandate if you're a part-time worker.  Everyone is included in the ACA.

Hoodie makes an important point: if a business is "no longer allowed to offer its previous plan" under the ACA, that's specifically because that plan was too pathetic and ineffective to be allowed to exist.  For anyone who was on that kind of plan, the federally-subsidized plans through the new healthcare exchanges will offer far superior coverage.

Essentially, you can file this story under "working as intended."  One of the purposes of Obamacare is to get rid of these kinds of do-nothing plans that simply take money out of the pockets of employees, yet have the substance of tissue paper the moment that claims need to be filed.

[Phishfan]

You aren't exempt from the individual mandate if you're a part-time worker.  Everyone is included in the ACA.

False. I think workers have to work 30 hours a week to be included under ACA.

[Spider-Dan]

False. I think workers have to work 30 hours a week to be included under ACA.

False.  The number of hours you work has nothing to do with it (only with whether or not your employer is required to offer you coverage).

While you were totally off-base on the logic behind your objection, it turns out that there are some people who will qualify for an exemption on the mandate:

http://policyinsights.kff.org/2012/march/the-individual-mandate-how-sweeping.aspx



The shaded grey areas represent incomes that would be exempt: namely, anyone who does not earn enough income to be required to file tax, or anyone whose premiums (after subsidies) would exceed 8% of their income.

The left shaded area (who, in practice, are likely the people being referred to in the OP) will qualify for full federal subsidies for their healthcare*.  So instead of having Universal deduct a portion of their paycheck for crappy coverage, they will receive superior coverage for free.  In fact, even the people to the right of the shaded area (but to the left of where the graph rises above 0) would only be penalized if they failed to sign up for their free health care.  Kind of puts a different spin on the original article, doesn't it?

However, there are a group of people (in this example situation, between $100k-$150k) whose premiums may exceed 8% of their income.  These people would also be exempted from the mandate (again, regardless of the amount of hours they work).  I think it is fair to say that part-time workers at Universal Studios will not be likely to qualify for that particular exemption.

*If you are unlucky enough to live in Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, South Dakota, Maine or Louisiana, your governor has elected to reject the federally-funded ACA Medicaid expansion, and so the point on that graph where the line goes from 0 to a positive number (i.e. cost out of pocket) will be shifted far to the left.  States' rights, and all.

[Phishfan]

False.  The number of hours you work has nothing to do with it (only with whether or not your employer is required to offer you coverage).

I just realized we are on different points. You threw out the term individual mandate which is one of your typical straw man points since we were discussing employer coverages. Correct, everyone (used loosley here for time) is under the individual mandate but employers do not have to offer coverage to part time workers (under 30 hours) which was the original discussion.

[Spider-Dan]

I just realized we are on different points. You threw out the term individual mandate which is one of your typical straw man points since we were discussing employer coverages.

Fair enough; when you asked if part-time workers were "included in the government's plan," I thought you were specifically asking about the mandate.  To answer your original question:

Are part time workers included in the government's plan?

Every single citizen in the United States of America is included and eligible for plans in the exchanges created by the ACA, regardless of income or work status.