Videos: Mayo Clinic employees get benefit cuts, cost hikes after ObamaCare

And needless to say, they’re not happy about it. The premiere health-care provider network and big Minnesota employer will have to cut benefits for its own employees, in part to comply with ObamaCare’s coverage mandates and in part to deal with exploding insurance premiums under the new law. First came the announcement last Friday that the changes would hit in 2015, after the employer mandates kick into force, KTTC reported:

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The CEO of Mayo Clinics tried to explain why this was necessary, but any economist could explain that much. When you penalize so-called “Cadillac” health plans and force insurers to absorb more risk, coverage will get reduced and prices will go up:

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“For folks that use no medical care beyond primary care visits and preventative services, their premiums could go down, or stay the same,” Nesse said. “But folks who need more care will be responsible for more of the cost of that care.”

That’s bad news for folks who have diseases like diabetes.

We could not find any Mayo employee willing to speak on camera, but one who spoke with us anonymously says the cost of his insulin copay has more than doubled just this year.

He says he and other diabetic Mayo retirees have had to stop taking some of their medication. He fears the changes in 2015 will make it even more expensive.

We’ve featured a lot of videos of people discovering just how much disruption ObamaCare has caused, but this has another aspect to it. The others talk about rising costs now, but this one shows that companies have already begun planning for the employer mandate that takes effect in January 2015. The White House put off enforcement of that part of ObamaCare until mid-November, which would put it past the midterms, but that’s not going to fool anyone. Businesses seeing the impact of current disruptions and the mandate’s enforcement will start adapting long before the due date. Mayo is just getting way ahead of the curve; many employers will wait until late summer to roll out these changes and price hikes, or announce that they’re dropping coverage altogether and sending their employees into the ObamaCare exchanges.

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That’s going to make a lot of people angry — just as they prepare to walk into the voting booths.

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Beege Welborn 5:00 PM | December 24, 2024
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