3M: 23,000 new seniors to lose coverage due to obamaCare ( FFUUBBOO!!!)

[Soul Crusher]

3M Says Up to 23,000 Seniors May Lose Coverage Thanks to Obamacare
Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, October 4, 2010, 12:13 PM



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Last Wedneday Barack Obama told a group of Iowans that they would not lose their health care due to Obamacare.

He also promised this during his campaign.

Of course, this isn’t true.

Former White House Spokesperson Dana Perino reacted to this blatant lie on Greta Van Susteren’s show.

Several top U.S. corporations already announced they would likely drop employee health insurance coverage in light of
what they see as the inevitable consequence of ObamaCare–skyrocketing
costs.

3M announced this week Obamacare may force up to 23,000 3M retirees out of their currrent health care plans.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

3M Co. confirmed it would eventually stop offering its
health-insurance plan to retirees, citing the federal health overhaul
as a factor.



The changes won’t start to phase in until 2013. But they show how
companies are beginning to respond to the new law, which should make it
easier for people in their 50s and early-60s to find affordable
policies on their own. While thousands of employers are tapping new
funds from the law to keep retiree plans, 3M illustrates that others
may not opt to retain such plans over the next few years



The St. Paul, Minn., manufacturing conglomerate notified employees
on Friday that it would change retiree benefits both for those who are
too young to qualify for Medicare and for those who qualify for the
Medicare program. Both groups will get an unspecified health
reimbursement instead of having access to a company-sponsored health
plan.



The maker of Post-it notes and Scotch tape said it made the
announcement now to give retirees a chance to explore different options
during this year’s benefit-enrollment period, according to a 3M memo
reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. A 3M spokeswoman, Jacqueline
Berry, confirmed the contents of the memo.



“As you know, the recently enacted health care reform law has
fundamentally changed the health care insurance market,” the memo said.
“Health care options in the marketplace have improved, and readily
available individual insurance plans in the Medicare marketplace
provide benefits more tailored to retirees’ personal needs often at
lower costs than what they pay for retiree medical coverage through 3M.



“In addition, health care reform has made it more difficult for
employers like 3M to provide a plan that will remain competitive,” the
memo said. The White House says retiree-only plans are largely exempt
from new health insurance regulations under the law.



The company didn’t specify how many workers would be impacted. It currently has 23,000 U.S. retirees.



So, it really comes as no surprise that only 38% of seniors support Obama.



Related Topics: obama, obamacare, health care, health insurance

More: http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/10/3m-sa...

[Soul Crusher]

Great job you fucking morons.  Kill yourselves. 

[Soul Crusher]

3M announced this week Obamacare may force up to 23,000 3M retirees out of their currrent health care plans.



________________________ ___________

Those of us with a clue warned to communist/progressive/liberal/socialist/marxists. 

Morons.   

[Soul Crusher]

3M – Obamacare Will Result in $90 Million Charge in First Quarter of 2010
Written by Rob on 26 March 2010

3M Company (NYSE: MMM) said today that it expects to record a one-time non-cash charge of $85 to $90 million after tax, or approximately 12 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2010, resulting from the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, including modifications made in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 passed by Congress on March 25, 2010. The charge is due to a reduction in the value of the company’s deferred tax asset as a result of a change to the tax treatment of Medicare Part D reimbursements. The company’s 2010 GAAP…

View full post on Latest Articles

Tags: 2010, charge, First, Million, Obamacare, Quarter, Result
Posted in Free Republic | 1 Comment »

[Skip8282]

Hey, another great start to getting 32 million more people covered.


I believe this is the 2nd thread all the Obamacare supporters have remained silent.

Can't wait till 2013, ha.

[Soul Crusher]

October 4, 2010 4:00 A.M.

You Can’t Keep the Plan You Have
Obamacare is coming to a doctor’s office near you.


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Last year, I ordered a CT scan of the chest on a 63-year-old patient whose chest X-ray had revealed a lung nodule. I had no problem getting the test approved by his private insurance company. The radiologist suggested that I repeat the CT scan this year to make sure the nodule hasn’t turned into cancer.

But this year, the same insurance company is denying the test, having clamped down on several elective services while also raising its premiums. This company now has to cover children with pre-existing conditions and can place no lifetime limits on care. It is struggling to preserve its profits as Obamacare kicks in — profits that, to begin with, are only approximately 4 percent of its total revenue.


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ADVERTISEMENT


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Next year, my patient will have Medicare. He can’t afford a secondary insurance plan (Medicare Part B covers only 80 percent of most charges), and he doesn’t qualify for Medicaid as his secondary, so he was hoping to join a Medicare Advantage plan — a private insurance plan that seniors can choose to receive, partly at government expense, instead of Medicare. But in 2011, Medicare Advantage is due to be cut $140 billion by the new law, and it is doubtful that the plan he wants will still be available. Harvard Pilgrim, the second-largest insurer in Massachusetts, has just dropped 22,000 patients from its Medicare Advantage plan in anticipation of these cuts. Soon seniors everywhere will have the same problem. In fact, the Medicare actuary estimates that 7 million out of the 11 million people with Medicare Advantage will be set adrift over the next seven years.

One of those patients will likely be my fellow with the lung nodule who needs a follow-up scan.

President Obama clearly hasn’t visited a real doctor’s office recently. If he sat on my office couch, he would immediately discover that real patients are terribly worried about how dysfunctional and expensive all health insurance, public and private, is becoming under the new law of the land. Of course, the problem of spiraling health-care costs and inadequate access to essential services was already happening before, but Obamacare is making it far worse.

My medical office is changing, and not for the better. As I write this, I have a patient waiting in the next room who has to pay cash to see me because his employer’s contribution to his plan has dropped this year, and his deductible has gone up. Many employers are getting ready to dump their employees on the state exchanges in 2014. They are adopting plans that won’t “grandfather in” under the draft regulations of the new law, which mandate low deductibles and low co-pays. I am treating my patient for high blood pressure, which may be due to his worrying over his medical bills. My bill is minor compared to the hundreds of dollars that the laboratory charges him for the routine blood tests his insurance no longer covers.

Next door to this man is a woman complaining about her premiums, which are up 20 percent from last year. She wants to add her 23-year-old son, who has diabetes, to the policy under the new law — but she can’t, because her son has a full-time job and is supposed to get it from his employer. But the employer isn’t offering it, and is prepared to ultimately pay the Obamacare penalty that is supposed to enforce the “mandate” that he provide insurance.

Under the “consumer protections” that just kicked in, private insurers are unable to charge co-pays for preventive services including mammograms, colonoscopies, and vaccines. This sounds good until you consider that when these services are “free,” demand for them will increase, and we doctors are ill equipped to handle such a demand surge. Further, it is unlikely that doctors will receive greater reimbursements to compensate for the lost co-pays — and so they will stop providing these services in droves. Your insurance may pay for your colonoscopy, but you may not be able to find a doctor to perform it.

And things are only going to get worse. Full-throttle Obamacare, which comes into effect in 2014, will promote insurance plans that require little payment from patients out-of-pocket — and thus are easy to overuse. This will remove the brakes from the system. In my doctor’s office of the near future, I expect the waiting room to be clogged with more and more patients even as the government and private insurers limit the tests and treatments I can offer.

Yesterday I saw a patient who just lost his job. He had no insurance, and I saw him for a very small fee. He expects to end up on Medicaid (it will be much easier to qualify under Obamacare), and since I don’t accept it — and more and more doctors are doing likewise — he will likely end up getting his care in the ER. But ERs are already overcrowded, and are not ready to handle more patients.

The president can keep telling Americans that their health care won’t change. But for my patients, it already has.

– Marc Siegel, M.D., is an associate professor of medicine at NYU and the medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Medical Center. He is a Fox News medical contributor.

[Soul Crusher]

3M Co. will drop retirees from health plans, steer to Medicare
Bizjournals.com ^ | 10/4/2010 | Sam Black

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3M Co., citing new federal health laws, said Monday it won't cover retirees with its corporate health-insurance plan starting in 2013.

Instead, the company will direct retirees to Medicare-backed insurance programs, and will provide reimbursement for that coverage. It'll also reimburse retirees who are too young for Medicare; the company didn't provide further details.

The company made the changes known in a memo to employees Friday; news of the move was reported in The Wall Street Journal and confirmed Monday by 3M spokeswoman Jackie Berry.

In its memo, the company said the new health-reform act would create new opportunities for people in their 50s and 60s to find affordable insurance.

Maplewood-based 3M (NYSE: MMM) is one of the first large companies to indicate that it won't tap a large federal-government reimbursement program created by Congress as part of the health insurance reform package, The Wall Street Journal reported. The rebate program was meant to encourage employers to keep in place their health-insurance plans for retirees.

3M said the new policy will begin in 2013 for retirees who are 65 and older and qualify for Medicare. Non-Medicare eligible retirees and their dependents will join the program in 2015.

3M noted that these changes affect current and future retirees of 3M, regardless of their retirement date.

The new policy is likely to save 3M money because it reduces the risk to the manufacturer for rising medical costs, according to a University of Minnesota professor interviewed Monday by Minnesota Public Radio.