Personally feeling the impact of "obamacare"

[lightsoutcalls]

  Like many here, I have been dreading the implementation of obamacare and all of the "surprises" it would bring.  (We have to pass this thing to find out what's in it...)

  Aside from my 40 hour day job, I have delivered pizza for a local Pizza Hut restraunt for the past 3 years.  My hunting buddy encouraged me to give it a try as a way to make some extra money, as he had driven and managed Pizza Hut restraunts for about 15 years.  I found it to be a break from my day job, a way to put some cash in my pocket and have a couple hundred dollars extra every 2 weeks.  All in all, it hasn't been bad. 
   Tuesday evening, one of the managers asked if she could talk to me outside for a few minutes.  We went outside and she shared with me that Pizza Hut has decided to make some changes in their pay structure for drivers.  (It wasn't sounding good already.) When I was hired, they were paying minimum wage, you kept all of your tips, and they paid anywhere from $1.15 down to about $.80 per delivery, depending on the price of gas and if you took more than one delivery on a "run".  About a year ago, new drivers came in making minimum wage while in the store, but made only $4.25 while clocked out on delivery runs.  I told myself I wouldn't even consider working for that...
ANYWAY, the manager explained that Pizza Hut (YUM brands, who also owns Taco Bell) has decided that in order to "stay competitive" they are going to have to cut the pay of all drivers hired prior to their pay schedule change back to that of current drivers.  In other words, due to no fault of my own (or the other drivers, some who don't have other jobs) we will be taking a $3 per hour cut in pay while we are driving, which is about 3/4 of the hours we are on the clock.
  As you can imagine, I was not a happy camper.  I asked for the number of someone higher up in the Pizza Hut management to find out more information and express my frustration.  They let me read a couple of pages of company issued "Talking Points" for managers to share when they told employees they would be taking a $3 per hour cut in pay.   I couldn't help but think of how the government tries to convince us that all of the "hope and change" is going to be good for us as I read the "Talking Points" sheets.  Yesterday I contacted the Arkansas general manager for Pizza Hut and talked with her for about 20 minutes.  She tried to re-hash the information I had been allowed to read (was written for managers eyes only) and make the situation sound much better than it was.  If I was a teenaged kid, I might have swallowed the swill and not asked any questions.  I explained that I wasn't real thrilled about having to do the same job for $3 less an hour.  She again tried to convince me that my tips and their mileage "reimbursement" (far less than the federally allowed $.565 per mile) helped to offset the cut in pay.  I reminded her that I was already receiving that money, so it basically amounted to Pizza Hut keeping about $75 more out of every paycheck I would receive.  About then is when she told me that Pizza Hut has been evaluating this change and trying to avoid it for the past 3 years (about when I started there) and basically it resulted from the changes coming from... DRUM ROLL PLEASE... "obamacare".
   I have now officially been personally impacted by obamacare.  I now like it a whole lot less than before... if that were possible...
   I will be praying and considering over the next couple of weeks if it's going to be worth messing with anymore.  After getting used to having the extra money, it would be an adjustment not having it available. 

[stinkpickle]

Expect little nuggets of Obamacare to pop up everywhere over the next several years.   

[Mike Honcho]

I'm sick of it...I pay over $ 600 a month now for family healthcare insurance thru my employer...which is probably not bad in this day and age...I am expecting it to go up to about $ 900 when Obamacare kicks in and who knows if the company will even offer healthcare at that time.

[Skeeterbait]

Nearly every US citizen alive today will at some time in their future be denied coverage and treatment for something that they could have gotten today.  You are going to wait months for treatments you could have gotten in a matter of days today.  It is going to set health care in this country back decades and people are going to die of things they could have been treated for today.

[DirtNap647]

Nearly every US citizen alive today will at some time in their future be denied coverage and treatment for something that they could have gotten today.  You are going to wait months for treatments you could have gotten in a matter of days today.  It is going to set health care in this country back decades and people are going to die of things they could have been treated for today.

agreed

[RickC]

When this junk passed and was signed into law my wife and I knew things were about to get really bad for us financially. My wife has MS, Myasthenia Gravis, Fibromyalgia and is a cancer survivor. Each month she receives a treatment for her MS and with that she is able to enjoy a fairly normal quality of life. At the beginning of the very next year when her deductible was 2500.00 it jumped to 4800.00 and we see it as only going higher as that junk law continues to crawl forward and eat up the nations earnings.
But as with all things we believe that our Lord will provide in someway and so far that has been the case.


Rick

[coyote1]

Osamacare is a disaster. This plan makes healthcare so unaffordable that most companies will drop healthcare alltogether and pay the yearly fine for not haveing it because it's cheaper. Another nail in the coffin for this country. This administration is by far the worst i have seen in my time. Another phase of this plan is showing up on new patient forms at doctors offices, such as they now ask how many guns you own on the form! Outrageouse what does that question have to do with healthcare? I personally refuse to answer that question as it is none of their bussiness. There are some bad times ahead and i pray for all people who did'nt vote this idiot into office. If this was the old days osama would be strung up for treason!

[coyote1]

Rick, that is awful. You pay 4,800 dollars for treatment that the gooberment gives to an illegal in the country for free! I have a seriouse problem with that, best of luck to you and your wife.

[Turkey Trot]

Nearly every US citizen alive today will at some time in their future be denied coverage and treatment for something that they could have gotten today.  You are going to wait months for treatments you could have gotten in a matter of days today.  It is going to set health care in this country back decades and people are going to die of things they could have been treated for today.

Only the bottom-rungers in American society will be better off.  I was at a cook out and drinking a couple of beers a while back and chatting with a physician that has hospital privileges.  He told me point blank that the sorriest people in society that make their living being free riders get approval and get to see specialists faster under Medicaid than insureds and HMO patients do.  If you play by the rules, work, pay your way, and have insurance, you end up getting screwed by the liberals' "Losers First" policies.

[Muzzy61]

I work in the medical field. Distribution manager for a orthopedic implant manufacturer . We sell and ship nationally and to 40 foreign countries. Part of the Obama care is a medical device tax. To avoid a tax that would take one third of our profits we are moving our foreign sale and distribution over seas. I'm having to lay off 10 guys with families. We will lay off 7 to 10 more in customer service. 

[RutnNStrutn]

I work for a county fire dep't. I can't wait to see what next year's health insurance is going to be and cost me. Everything about the Muslim in Chief has been a disaster for America.

[Tail Feathers]

It's already cost me about $75 per month in insurance premiums and more increases are expected.
I can't handle this much CHANGE, and sure HOPE it gets undone real soon!

[tomstopper]

I work for a county fire dep't. I can't wait to see what next year's health insurance is going to be and cost me. Everything about the Muslim in Chief has been a disaster for America.

Could not have said it any better.....

[nystrut]

my local hospital just anounced that they are laying off 80 full time employees due to obama care.

[DeWayne Knight]

Do you work for PHI corporate or a franchise?  Pizza Hut International is the parent company and owns company stores.  Most of the stores in the U.S. are owned by local franchises.