Thursday, August 22, 2013

The Latest Corporate Maneuver To Screw Workers - Dump The Spouse!

With a tip of the crown to one of my tweeps, we find that UPS is starting a new attack on workers which is going to put the screw to a lot of families:
In a memo addressed to employees, U.P.S. said, “Limiting plan eligibility is one way to manage
ongoing health care costs, now and into the future, so that we can continue to provide affordable coverage for our employees.”

The memo also estimated that about 33,000 spouses were covered under its insurance plan for white-collar employees and that “about 15,000 of these would have health care coverage available through their own employers.”

In explaining its move — which was first reported by Kaiser Health News and USA Today — U.P.S. told employees, “Since the Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide affordable coverage, we believe your spouse should be covered by their own employer — just as U.P.S. has a responsibility to offer coverage to you, our employee.”
And it's not just the corporations. The public sector is also being similarly attacked:
Large employers like Xerox and Teva Pharmaceuticals already impose surcharges for spousal coverage. And some cities, like Terre Haute, Ind., decided to follow what many of its private corporations were doing, by adopting a “spousal carve-out” so that working spouses would not be covered under its health plans.
The corporations are blaming Obamacare for these moves, but the article goes on to report that the cost is minimal and that this is just another way for the corporations to increase their profit margin.

This kind of move will really hurt working families, especially if one or both spouses are working in a low-paying part-time job. While individual coverage is obviously less than family coverage, two individual costs would far exceed the cost of a family coverage. If a person is working a low paying job, health care coverage would eat up a large part of their check. In fact, the cost might become so high that it would be more cost effective for the family if the lesser paid spouse quit his or her job.

Needless to say, the cut in income would be devastating for the family. But it would also go to further slow the economic recovery and very possibly put us back in a downward spin.

4 comments:

  1. Tremendous overreaction on your part. A corporation cuts people's insurance. Happens all the time. The news is now there is a market and mechanism for those people to obtain affordable insurance elsewhere. Good news Obamacare is there.

    And basicl right wing theory is that UPS will pass the savings on to us. Everbody wins.

    ReplyDelete
  2. VOTE TO UNIONIZE, GET LEGAL REPRESENTATION FOR ALL!

    WE WILL STAND TOGETHER!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dumbass, UPS is unionized. Ever heard of the Teamsters?

      While I do not support what UPS is doing, it is not as bad as it seems and is pretty common. All they are doing is cutting out spouses who are eligible for health insurance at their own employment. Now of course, that insurance could be worse, could be like Walmart's fake insurance, etc. That is where this is a problem.

      Delete
  3. Double Dumb ass. UPS is unionized but they are dropping spouse insurance to their white collar NON-UNIONIZED employees first.

    If this succeeds, what do you think they are going to do to their UNIONIZED employees at the next contract?

    ReplyDelete