Many U.S companies have had to make some adjustments to their employees’ health plans, due to ‘Obama-care’. Some of the country’s biggest employers have had to cut down costs and in some cases, employees are not entirely happy.
Although implementing mandatory health insurance for companies with 50 or more employees is a good thing, employees from some companies have lost benefits they used to have before. UPS (4th biggest employer) had to ‘stop providing insurance for spouses of non-union workers’. IBM will no longer provide health care for around 110,000 retirees.
Howard Schultz (CEO of Starbucks) believes ‘Obama-care’ is a “good thing for the country”, yet refuses to rely on it by itself. Starbucks employees will keep enjoying great health insurance and face no changes, as – although costs will rise, the company refuses to cut down expenses that will affect their employees.
However, this extra ‘cost’ could potentially be good for their brand. Not only does it give a good image of the company, but it might just motivate their employees to provide a better service, therefore keeping customers happy – and eventually maybe even an increase in the company’s revenue.
Sources:
-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/16/starbucks-obamacare_n_3935999.html
-http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/27/news/companies/starbucks-obamacare-schultz/index.html