Restaurant Owner IHOPS Out Of The Biz Because Of Obamacare
Robert Bluey writes at The Daily Signal of a longtime IHOP owner, Scott Womack, who sold his 16 restaurants and nixed plans for expansion because the "Affordable" Care Act made continuing to do business unaffordable:
"You have to fund your development through your profits," Womack said during my 2011 visit to Terre Haute. "And if you have no profits, you're not building restaurants."During his testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, Womack said those plans were now in jeopardy--and with it hundreds of jobs, not just at his restaurants but also in industries such as construction and manufacturing that would support his expansion.
"Let me state this bluntly," Womack told lawmakers, "this law will cost my company more money than we make."
The cost of Obamacare's mandates--Womack estimated it would be $7,000 to provide health care coverage for each full-time employee--left him with few options: cut costs, eliminate staff, reduce hours or convert workers to part-time status.
Womack, a 30-year restaurant veteran, faced unique challenges in the industry, where profit margins ranged from 5 percent to 7 percent. Restaurants already produce the lowest revenue per employee, meaning there was a high labor cost associated with implementing the new law.
Four Years Later
Facing the prospect of Obamacare's employer mandate on Jan. 1, 2015, Womack opted to sell his 16 IHOP restaurants last year to Romulus Restaurant Group. (The company, which operates 74 restaurants in nine states, didn't get back to me but Womack believes everyone who worked at his restaurants remains employed.)
I've long been against employer-provided healthcare. It's idiocy. Leave a job and start another with a different health care company and you lose your doctors and the continuity of your care.
I've paid for my own care every month since my 20s. That's how it should be for everyone -- especially in a day and age where people leave jobs with some frequency and many people don't have jobs and are just hired guns.
via @reasonpolicy
" It's idiocy. Leave a job and start another with a different health care company and you lose your doctors and the continuity of your care."
America is a very mobile society. It is often easier to keep your doctor when you change companies than is is when your job moves you to another location.
If you have something serious you are referred to a specialist anyway, so continuity of care at the basic level is a red herring.
Isab at March 29, 2015 9:35 PM
I don't know if that is true anymore Isab. Before O-care I didn't have trouble, but now it was quite difficult to get an insurance plan that included all of the doctors my family uses. Of course, before O-care the insurer's list of doctors was mostly correct. Now it is easier to call up doctors and ask which insurance they accept because the insurer's list means nothing. I'm in Amy's boat paying for individual insurance so I can't comment on group insurance. But in the individual market the insurance has just gone bizarre.
Ben at March 30, 2015 1:34 AM
I think Isab is minimizing what are real problems for people. And a primary care doctor who is science-based and very good is not easy to find. Do people really find it no big deal to change pediatricians? What if you have a kid with autism?
The notion that it is "easy" to keep your doctor when you change companies is just ridiculous.
Amy Alkon at March 30, 2015 5:32 AM
well obviously its easier to keep your doc when you dont move to a new location.
Amy, you had Kaiser, if I remember, which I had, too. Its wicked cheap. Most insurance plans are not. Isnt Kaiser a non profit?
NicoleK at March 30, 2015 7:32 AM
What really seems to be more and more screwed up, is both insurance and billing.
The doctors offices don't seem to even know what the co pay is going to be until the insurance tells them.
As I posted in the wrong topic, I am on my fifth endocrinologist in 20 years of treatment while living in exactly the same place.
The last one, who is actually a sports medicine doctor finally managed to get my thyroid hormones balanced out.
So even when you find care, it isn't necessarily good care.
Isab at March 30, 2015 7:33 AM
It used to be that, in a given area, the copay for a particular insurer was the same for everyone in that area. The doctor's office knew that for anyone with ABC insurance the copy was $20, and for anyone with XYZ insurance the copay was $30. Now every plan is different, and doctors and other service providers don't have any good way of looking up the copay for a particular plan. They only find out when they get their reimbursement. And what's worse is, the insurance companies themselves aren't keeping up with it very well either. I don't know how many times over the past few years I've opened a piece of mail from a doctor, and found either a bill for $5 or a check for $5.
Cousin Dave at March 30, 2015 8:19 AM
I hear that CD. My pediatrician regularly sends me bills for $2 or less. It is ridiculous.
Ben at March 30, 2015 10:50 AM
There actually is a way to find out what things are supposed to cost in terms of copays. It's an online service and software called Passport Onesource, or at least that's what it was called at Kaiser. You log into it and enter the information from the patient's insurance. It then verifies whether or not their coverage is active and gives you the option to see what plan coverage is in terms of copays. I'm then able to see if you have a flat $20 copay for a visit, pay 20% of lab costs, etc. The only problem is that I don't specifically know what a certain test or procedure costs if you have a percentage copay, so I can't give you an exact dollar amount beyond saying it's a 20% copay for a certain thing. Not every insurance company is in the system though.
BunnyGirl at March 30, 2015 5:45 PM
> a primary care doctor who
> is science-based
?
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at April 1, 2015 1:14 AM
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