Medical Company Lays Off 100 Due To Obamacare
Just another victory for the Affordable Care Act:
Medical company Smith & Nephew fired roughly 100 employees at its Memphis, Tenn., and Massachusetts offices, citing the medical device tax included in The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (i.e. “Obamacare”), a Fox affiliate in Memphis reports.
“Inside sources told FOX13 News the layoffs at Smith & Nephew in Memphis went on through most of Thursday morning and afternoon. These sources say employees who were laid off were escorted out of the building immediately,” the report reads. “The company says it laid off less than 100 employees between its Tennessee and Massachusetts offices.”
The company released a statement explaining the reason for the layoffs: “The nearly $30 billion tax on medical devices that took effect Jan. 1, 2013, has impacted a number of companies across the U.S.”
The statement adds that the company is not exempt from the multi-billion dollar medical device tax included in President Obama’s healthcare overhaul.
“Unfortunately, and in order to absorb this cost burden into our business, this has meant less than 100 positions have been made redundant across various departmental functions in our Tennessee and Massachusetts sites,” the statement reads.
When Obamacare isn’t costing people their jobs, it’s reducing the number of hours they’re allowed to work by implementing a sort of defacto thirty hour work week. Already employers around the nation are cutting back on employee hours to get under the law’s mandate for health insurance coverage. Local governments are cutting hours. Colleges are cutting hours. Restaurants are cutting hours. Retail stores are cutting hours.
And even as more Americans are unemployed, and underemployed, because of this law it’s also raising the cost of health insurance and health care through layers and layers of coverage mandates.
So, in summary, Obamacare means fewer people working less hours and insurance/health care costs that are growing faster than before.
