Trader Joe's: Joins IBM, GE, UPS, Others; Moving Folks To ObamaCare Exchanges

About six months ago I started talking about this: for investors, ObamaCare was going to be wonderful. Companies would move as many employees as possible off their health-care programs and unto the federal program. The cost of health care for these companies (all things being equal) will drop. The cost of health care will be spread across the nation, across all taxpayers, whether they are investors or not.

Bloomberg is now reporting that another company, Trader Joe's, is moving its part-time employees over to the ObamaCare exchanges.

Employees with fewer than 30 hours a week will no longer be given health coverage as of Jan. 1, and will receive $500 to help them buy insurance elsewhere, the Monrovia, California-based company said in a statement. 

The move makes Trader Joe’s the latest U.S. employer to cut benefits or reduce hours in response to the 2010 act, which requires companies to offer affordable coverage to full-time workers starting in 2014. Trader Joe’s, the owner of about 400 stores, said most of the affected employees will find a better deal on the health-law exchanges, where buyers may be eligible for federal subsidies.  

And as noted, the health care exchanges will provide better deals than Trader Joe's provided.

Many, many story lines.

I track ObamaCare cost shifting here. When I hit 50 companies, universities, municipalities etc., I plan to quit tracking. At 50, we will have reached a tipping point -- though, when IBM announced they were moving retirees off their health care program, one could argue that was the tipping point.