Obamacare Forcing Darden Restaurants To Cut Worker's Hours

I love how the liberals keep calling Romney/Ryan liars, and yet they are in total denial about the many fibs that have ushered forth from their precious Barack Obama's lips.

Let's focus on Obamacare.  Anyone remember how he promised that we would not lose our preferred doctors, or our insurance, and he assured us that our insurance rates would not go up?  Right.  None of those things are turning out to be true. Now, maybe he truly believed nothing bad would happen, perhaps they weren't blatant lies, but if not,  how can we trust someone who made such gross miscalculations?  Either way, it's an epic fail.

Not only are people's insurance rates going up (I wrote about this in another post), they will also be losing their preferred doctors because, in some cases, they will be losing their insurance. Companies are now discovering they can no longer afford to provide insurance for their employees, so, boom, gone. This is what's going to happen to many waiters and waitresses at Olive Gardens, Red Lobsters and LongHorn Steakhouses.  Darden, the parent company of those restaurants, is instituting  some major changes in the work schedules of employees to get around not having to provide insurance.

In an experiment apparently aimed at keeping down the cost of health-care reform, Orlando-based Darden Restaurants has stopped offering full-time schedules to many hourly workers in at least a few Olive Gardens, Red Lobsters and LongHorn Steakhouses.

Darden said the test is taking place in "a select number" of restaurants in four markets, including Central Florida, but would not give details. The company said there has been no decision made about expanding it.

In an emailed statement, Darden said staffing changes are "just one of the many things we are evaluating to help us address the cost implications health care reform will have on our business. There are still many unanswered questions regarding the health care regulations and we simply do not have enough information to make any decisions at this time."

And other companies are considering following suit.  White Castle, the fast food burger joint, is thinking of not hiring as many full-time workers.

Obamacare is set for 2014, and you're a fool if you don't think more companies will stop providing 30 hours of work to save themselves some money.  After all, they'll be fined up to $3,000 per worker if they don't.

"I think a lot of those employers, especially restaurants, are just going to ensure nobody gets scheduled more than 30 hours a week," said Matthew Snook, partner with human-resources consulting company Mercer.

So what's Darden doing? Offering their  workers a 28 hour work week. Many believe it will adversely affect the restaurant industry. They get such little money as it is, relying mainly on tips, that less work hours will net less income. I wouldn't stick around.

Right now, all 185,000 or so Darden workers get some form of health insurance. The ones offered a limited-benefit plan are the ones who will be most affected,

That type of coverage is being phased out under health-care changes, which will ban annual limits for most plans.

About 25 percent of Darden workers are full time, meaning they work more than 30 hours a week. Though employees say Darden already offers traditional health insurance to full-timers, Janney Capital Markets analyst Mark Kalinowski said the cost of providing that could become higher for Darden under the Affordable Care Act. Because that law requires everyone to have health insurance, more workers will likely choose its coverage, Kalinowski said.

"Even a modest jump up in the amount of employees that decide they want the insurance you're offering could have a meaningful impact on your bottom line," he said.

So much for all those promises.  I can guarantee that it's not just restaurants that are going to start implementing cuts to save on insurance when Obamacare comes into play.

But even some Republicans are falling for the Obamacare hype and plan on voting for Obama in November- the ones with pre-existing conditions. Now, I can relate, I have two, but I'm still not voting for Obama and here's why: when I was searching for alternate insurance because my COBRA payments are so high -and yes, my premiums went up, as well- I was told yes they would insure me, but I would have had to pay much more for less benefits.  So, yes, insurance companies will have to take you and your pre-existing conditions on, but are you going to be able to afford the exorbitant cost? No, you won't.  So what's the point?