Florida restaurateur to impose surcharge for ObamaCare --Fox News

[bsteadman]

Florida restaurateur to impose surcharge for ObamaCare

Fox News
Joshua Rhett Miller
11/15/2012

Excerpt:

John Metz, who operates roughly 40 Denny’s locations and five Hurricane Grill & Wings franchises, told FoxNews.com intends to add a 5 percent surcharge to customers’ bill to offset costs for ObamaCare in January 2014 when the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented.

Get ready to pay more for your Grand Slam.

A Florida restaurateur who operates roughly 40 Denny’s locations and five Hurricane Grill & Wings franchises in Florida, Virginia and Georgia intends to add a 5 percent surcharge to customers’ bills to offset costs from ObamaCare beginning in January 2014 when the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented.

“People are trying to find ways to avoid the penalties and to avoid having to pay for ObamaCare,” John Metz told FoxNews.com. “Everyone’s looking for a way to not have to provide insurance for their employees. It’s essentially a huge tax on all us business people.”

To further offset the costs, Metz, who oversees roughly 1,200 employees as president and CEO of RREMC Restaurants, LLC, said he also will slash most of the staff's time to fewer than 30 hours per week. That change will be announced to employees next month, he said.

“I want to explain it to everybody, to let them know what’s coming down the pike,” he said. “We like to keep our employees informed.”

The changes will force some front-of-the-house employees to look for second jobs, Metz said, but he simply cannot afford the penalties associated with ObamaCare.

“It’s a great concept,” he said. “We want to have everyone insured. The problem is, who is going to pay for it and how are we going to accomplish this?”

Under the current law, employers with more than 50 full-time (or equivalent) workers will be charged a penalty for the number of employees exceeding 30 full-time staffers who are not covered. With an average of 35 full-time employees per location, Metz said the $2,000 penalty would total roughly $70,000 per restaurant. Current coverage costs Metz up to $6,000 annually per full-time employee, he said. He currently provides coverage to about 250 employees.

“It’s going to be a big issue for all of us — for my employees and for me,” said Metz, who has been in the industry since 1975. “The ones that are working more than 28 hours, they’re going to act as if I’m cutting their hours and they’ll have to find another job.”
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View the complete article at:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/15...for-obamacare/

[bsteadman]

CEO of Papa John's says employees' hours will likely be cut due to ObamaCare

Fox News
11/11/2012

Excerpt:

The CEO of popular pizza chain Papa John's says his employees may face reduced hours and he expects his business costs to rise because President Obama's re-election most likely insures the president's health care reform law will be implemented in full.

NaplesNews.com reports John Schnatter made the remarks to a small group at Edison State College's Collier County campus the day after the election.

Schnatter, who supported Mitt Romney in the election, said all Americans having health insurance under ObamaCare is a good, but estimates the change will cost Papa John's $5 million to $8 million annually.

Schnatter estimated that these rising costs could adversely affect his workers. Since only full-time employees working 30 hours or more must be covered under the new law, he said he expects franchise owners will be forced to cut employees' hours because they can't afford the costs of health insurance plans.

"That's probably what's going to happen," he said according to NaplesNews.com. "It's common sense. That's what I call lose-lose."

The comments were not Schnatter's first statements on ObamaCare. He made headlines in August for telling shareholders the law may lead to increases in the price of his pizza.
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View the complete article, including video, at:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/11...-to-obamacare/

[bsteadman]

Massive backlash against ObamaCare begins

Examiner
Anthony Martin
11/15/2012

Excerpt:

Going into the 2012 presidential election many business owners had the hope that President Obama would be denied a second term and that Republicans would take control of the U.S. Senate, thus insuring that the ObamaCare law would be repealed. Those hopes were dashed by the election results.

But business owners who are already hurting from four years of the worst economy since the Great Depression are not willing to give up so easily in attempting to save their businesses from possible bankruptcy. A massive backlash has begun against ObamaCare, which the business owners say is driving up the cost of doing business, making it impossible to make a profit, and forcing them to lay off workers and roll back hours for employees.

A Denny's franchise owner in Florida announced today his intention of adding a 5 percent "ObamaCare surcharge" to all sales. He is also rolling back employee hours from 40 hours per week to 28 hours per week in order to avoid being forced to cover workers under the new ObamaCare provisions, which he says will cause his overhead costs to skyrocket.

John Metz, who owns 40 Denny's restaurants in Florida, stated,

"I think it's a terrible thing. It's ridiculous that the maximum hours we can give people is 28 hours a week instead of 40.

"It's going to force my employees to go out and get a second job."

The provisions of the so-called "Affordable Care Act" require that all businesses that employ over 50 workers to offer an approved healthcare plan or face a fine of $2,000 per worker. Many businesses have said that paying the fine is more cost efficient than offering the insurance. Others have said that either way they are either being forced out of business or forced to cut employees and the number of hours workers are given in order to save costs.

Metz continued,

"Obviously, I'd love to cover all our employees under that insurance.

"But to pay $5,000 per employee would cost us $175,000 per restaurant and unfortunately, most of our restaurants don't make $175,000 a year. I can't afford it."

Denny's joins a growing list of companies that are undertaking similar measures in response to ObamaCare, such as Applebee's, Papa John's, Apple Metro, and Jimmy John's.

The backlash against ObamaCare is viewed by many conservatives as part of a much broader movement that has been growing since election day. Citizens are expressing their deep disapproval of the reelection of Obama and are fighting back. Many citizens say they refuse to abide by the requirements of ObamaCare and will refuse to pay any penalty for the failure to purchase a health insurance policy. The government's retribution against such citizens remains to be seen. It is assumed that at this point the federal government would then resort to the arrest and imprisonment of those who refuse to comply.

In addition, the growing "secession movement" has now spread to all 50 states and is an issue that refuses to go away. Seven states now have the required 25,000 signatures to gain a direct response from the White House, which has stated on its website that petitions containing at least 25,000 signatures will merit a response.

Some participants in the movement have stated that they do not actually intend to follow through with seceding from the union but that their goal is to send a message to the Obama White House concerning the widespread discontent with Obama throughout America.
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View the complete article at:

http://www.examiner.com/article/mass...amacare-begins