The following is an incomplete list of healthcare job cuts that took place, or were announced, from July to September 2015, and were directly or indirectly blamed on Obama Care.
France based Publicis Groupe (aka Publicis Healthcare Communications Group) owned Rosetta North America has been eliminating U.S. jobs ever since it was merged with Razorfish Healthware.
“Premiums for Obamacare plans are expected to increase substantially in 2016, with many insurers requesting double-digit rate hikes. For example, in June Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina proposed an overall rate hike of 26 percent for 2016 Obamacare plans, and two months later raised the hike to 35 percent.”–Agile Health Insurance
Obama orders new War on Drugs targeting legal prescription drug users & his own ObamaCare!
Arizona: In Flagstaff, taxpayer funded Coconino County dental clinic shutdown. County administrators say in the past year about 50% of patients never showed up for their scheduled appointments! The patient turnout is so low that the only county public health dentist quit!
California: Menlo Park based Kaiser Family Foundation released their study of the effects of Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) insurance rates and concluded that in 2014 insurance rates through employers went up an average of 4% yet wages averaged only a 1.9% increase. Many insurance companies have already warned of rate hikes by as much as 30% for 2016! The drugs company formerly known as Actavis, now known as Allergan, is prepping to be sold off again this time to Israel’s Teva, 45 jobs were eliminated. Highland Hospital Substance Abuse Treatment Center shutdown, taxpayer funded Alameda Health System says ObamaCare makes it not worth it to renew their contract to operate the treatment center. Aramark Healthcare shutdown their Support Services in Culver City, 53 jobs lost. Ohio based Parker Hannifin ’s Engineered Materials Group shutting down their Medical Systems Division factories in Anaheim and Fontana, and moving them to Mexico by the end of 2016. Administrators refused to say how many jobs will be lost. In Palo Alto, Bosch Healthcare Systems shutdown, 55 jobs lost. In Carlsbad, medical device maker Alphatec Spine laid off at least 99 employees! Long Beach Memorial Medical Center laid off 88 employees. Kindred Hospital South Bay to shutdown its KND Development 53 in October, 94 jobs lost. In Berkeley, reports say biotech company XOMA eliminating 58 jobs in order to “lower operating expenses and preserve capital”. Zimmer Biomet Dental issued shutdown WARNs for their Carlsbad ops, 279 jobs lost by the end of October! Abbott Vascular laid off 244 Californians! Developmental disabilities services company, AbilityFirst, issued a shutdown WARN for its Woodland Hills operation, 105 jobs lost before Thanksgiving! In Mira Loma, medical device company Medtronic Distribution laying off 21 people by January 2016. Medical tech company CareFusion laid off 95 people. Santa Barbara based plastic surgery supplier Mentor Worldwide issued a layoff WARN, 81 jobs lost before Thanksgiving. In Rancho Cordova, medical device maker Cesca Therapeutics reports they lost $2.4-million USD in their 4th quarter! They’ve already laid off 15 people and more layoffs could happen. In Menlo Park, Affordable Care Act medical device tax forcing medical device maker Acclarent to layoff 114 people by November!
Connecticut: Stamford Hospital to shutdown its mobile wellness van and layoff 20 people and not fill 113 vacancies, and cut $2-million USD in funding for primary care clinics! It’s blamed partly on new taxes that the hospital and staff will have to pay! Hartford HealthCare and Yale New Haven Health System also report drastic cuts due to the new tax! Colorado based AxisPoint Health laid off 45 people in Wallingford. Major ObamaCare insurance provider Aetna announced $1-billion in cuts (jobs) between now and 2018! As I warned in earlier posts about insurance companies cornering the ObamaCare market by merging, it’s all connected to Aetna’s takeover of rival ObamaCare insurance provider Humana. Potentially thousands of jobs will be cut, and insurance rates will go up!
Delaware: Affordable Care Act forcing Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield to “streamline our operations” and layoff 12 employees. Taxpayer funded nursing home Emily P. Bissell Hospital shutdown.
Florida: Corizon Health laid off 64 people in Naples. Rotech Oxygen and Medical Equipment issued a WARN saying 90 people will become unemployed in October. Southeast Homecare eliminated 217 jobs! At Kennedy Space Center, InoMedic Health Applications laid off 172 people! ObamaCare medical device taxes, and changes to Medicare, forced home medical device provider Univita to quit! According to WARNs, 785 people in Miramar are now unemployed! Last week Univita employees were told “We are ramping down our operations and will be experiencing a massive reduction in staff.” It should be noted that the privately run Better Business Bureau said Univita was a terrible company. Palm Beach County eliminated healthcare jobs due to massive funding cuts for the Adults with Disabilities program. Florida Healthy Kids Corporation straight up blames Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) for jacking up the cost of healthcare, the exact opposite of what was supposed to happen (but what many critics warned would happen). Health insurance premiums per child jumped from an average of $140 USD per month to $284!
Georgia: Non-profit Southern Regional Medical Center now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. Reports say the hospital will be sold to a California non-profit. Despite ObamaCare claiming to provide every U.S. citizen with medical insurance, Southern Regional administrators say 30% of their customers are still uninsured, and the hospital is owed at least $21-million USD for services rendered in 2014! Bankrupt Hutcheson Medical Center shutting down their Labor and Delivery Services to “provide cost saving measures.” Pediatria Healthcare shutdown five of their daycare operations for children with medical problems! Administrators say since 2013 ‘reforms’ to Medicaid resulted in massive funding cuts and affected patient referrals. ObamaCare is forcing the families of the “medically fragile” children to care for them at home, on their own: “DCH is working alongside the provider to transition all children to in-home skilled nursing support services. (DCH) is taking all necessary steps to ensure that the parents and guardians are connected to and able to access the full scope of Medicaid services available to their children.”– Department of Community Health
Hawaii: After eliminating 87 jobs Hawaii Health Systems eliminated another 30, mostly from their Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital and West Kauai Clinics. This time administrators blame state ‘lawmakers’ for cutting $3-million USD from their fiscal year 2016 operating budget. Taxpayer funded Leahi Hospital and the taxpayer funded Maluhia Hospital laid off 64 employees. Administrators said these layoffs, coupled with reducing the number of people seeking medical help, are their last resort in an attempt to prevent an all-out shutdown of the hospitals caused by drastic funding cuts: “We hope that the impacts for current patients will not be severe because we do hope that we will accomplish this by reducing new admissions.”-Linda Rosen, Hawaii Health Systems
Idaho: It’s been revealed that Idaho is one of several states that allow the employers of home healthcare workers to pay them less than minimum wage and avoid overtime pay! The Idaho Statesman has revealed that ObamaCare is actually raising healthcare prices in The Gem State through insurance and hospital mergers, which the healthcare system administrators claim is the only way they can survive the ObamaCare reimbursement cuts: “Size matters, and the objective of many hospitals and hospital systems is to get sufficiently big in a given geographic area so that you have leverage over the insurance company, because if you’re big enough, the insurance company needs your facilities in their network, because if they don’t have your facilities in their network, they can’t sell their product to the employers in town or the individuals in town.”– Paul Levy, a former hospital CEO
The state Department of Insurance has approved ObamaCare (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) health insurance rate increases by as much as 26% in 2016! It was also revealed that ObamaCare Idaho insurance rates have already gone up by as much as 15%! Health insurance providers claim that they still payout far more than what they get in premium payments under ObamaCare, which means from the insurance industry perspective their own ObamaCare (they wrote the law folks) is a failure! The wimp-ass state Department of Insurance director feebly said “In spite of our best efforts in working with carriers, health insurance rates will be increasing for some Idahoans in 2016….we urge consumers to review their plans and shop wisely…”
It’s been revealed that after certain medical care providers were cut-off from Idaho’s Medicaid that taxpayers are still shelling out money to those banned service providers! At least six providers have been paid $820-thousand USD since they were banned! Another two banned providers did not get payments but are still on the list of approved healthcare providers! It’s not just Idaho, the revelations come from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Illinois: In Streator, Saint Mary’s Hospital to be shutdown by 2016 and replaced with a smaller outpatient clinic. Most of the hospital’s 3-hundred jobs will be lost! Healthcare provider Home Care Personal Services shutdown without warning. Non-profit Fox Valley Older Adult Services to shutdown their DeKalb and Aurora ops. Springfield’s Hope Institute for Children and Families ending its autism program due to ‘lawmakers’ suspending the taxpayer funding. Health insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield laid off 60 employees across the state. Apparently those jobs are being contracted out so the ObamaCare insurance company can make bigger profits for the shareholders. The Franklin-Williamson Bi-County Health Department laid off a total of 12 people since March. Should we blame ObamaCare? “We were already losing money on these programs, and it just can’t continue…..we’re going to be operating with fewer staff for many, many more months to come…..Times have caught up with us there. ….We will begin to increase those fees, we have no choice.”-Robin Koehl
Indiana: In Granger, after less than three years Doctors Express to shutdown. They called ObamaCare a “market factor”. In Evansville, mental health and addiction treatment center Mulberry Center shutting down by Xmas. News reports say the center has a couple hundred patients, yet only seven employees. Sounds very efficient, yet the owners of Mulberry Center, Southwestern Healthcare, say they have to consolidate healthcare services into fewer centers in order to save money because Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) greatly reduces payments.
Kansas: Hospital Mercy Independence shutdown. They tried to merge with another hospital chain but that failed. 2-hundred healthcare jobs now lost! Administrators warn that they might have to shutdown their Mercy Fort Scott hospital as well. Local news reports indicate that since ObamaCare went into effect at least 50 small town/rural hospitals have shutdown.
Kentucky: Nurses Registry and Home Health went chapter 11 bankrupt, because of ObamaCare, administrators say they are owed $1-million in Medicaid payments, about 65% of its average monthly revenue! 2-hundred jobs threatened, and 1,350 home healthcare patients affected!
Louisiana: Magellan Health-Louisiana Care Management Center to lose a contract and eliminate 80 jobs between the end of November and the end of February 2016. Non-profit Louisiana Health Cooperative has been bullied by state and federal Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) regulators to shutdown “voluntarily”! You should realize that ObamaCare was written by the for-profit insurance industry, and they don’t like competition!
Maine: After 22 years, the Biddeford Free Clinic shutdown, the operators say ever since ObamaCare went into effect the number of uninsured patients they see has crashed (they treat only uninsured people). The new owners of Mid Coast Health Services walk-in medical clinic shut it down. Administrators said ObamaCare is “…realigning health care services.” Non-profit Spectrum Health Systems shutdown their outpatient addiction treatment center, 1-hundred patients affected! A local news report even insinuated that the ObamaCare shutdowns of addiction treatment centers is to blame for the rise in heroin addicts! Southern Maine Health Care laid off 13 people and halted their overnight care in Sanford.
Maryland: Laurel Regional Hospital to shutdown their Maternal & Child Health department in October. Administrators said “…obstetrical services has been a persistent problem.”, meaning they can’t make enough money off it. Laurel Regional Hospital itself to become an outpatient clinic only! News reports say hundreds of people will be laid off over the next year! The hospital will be remodeled (at a cost of at least $25-million) and re-open around 2018 as an ambulatory care clinic (walk-ins only). Many hospital administrators say they cannot make enough money under ObamaCare as a full hospital service, so they are either merging with other hospitals, reducing services to walk-in only clinics, or shutting down all together. The state insurance exchange warned that premium rates will go up as much as 26%!
Massachusetts: Two nursing homes that’ve survived the Great (deflationary) Depression and numerous recessions shutdown; the 150 years old Merrimack River Valley House and the 87 years old Horn Home. Peabody based medical equipment maker Analogic to eliminate at least 90 U.S. jobs as they begin moving production to China! Worcester based Reliant Medical Group eliminated 78 jobs. Cambridge Endoscopic Devices chapter 11 bankrupt busted. Brigham and Women’s Hospital eliminating 1-hundred jobs saying they expect Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) to cause them to lose $10-million this year! ObamaCare is causing operating costs to go up 4% while revenues barely went up by 1%.
Michigan: HealthPlus to begin “voluntary separations”. Outright layoffs will begin at the end of September, company administrators reportedly have a goal of eliminating 5-hundred jobs! In May the insurance company got out of the Medicaid business by selling off its Medicaid and MIChild operations. In Pontiac, Doctors Hospital-Oakland Physicians Medical Center to go bankrupt. Adminstrators blame the growing trend of ObamaCare mergers and the threat of losing Medicare payments due to ObamaCare rules. Reports said the hospital employed, at one point, 690 people! MidMichigan Health shutdown its Hemlock operations. The Saint Joseph Mercy Port Huron hospital put up for sale. Is Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) responsible for Powerlink janitorial contractor losing their contract with Henry Ford Health System? 190 jobs lost in time for Xmas!
Minnesota: North Memorial Medical Center shutdown its Home Care operations, at least 1-hundred jobs lost! 4-hundred patients affected! BlueCross BlueShield to eliminate 450 jobs by 2019!
Mississippi: University of Mississippi Medical Center laid off at least 14 people, the majority being nurse educators. It’s blamed on the new Mississippi Provider-Sponsored Health Plan.
Missouri: Administrators with Mercy Springfield Communities directly blame ObamaCare for causing them to lose $30-million, thus forcing them to kill 127 healthcare jobs! Administrators say the ObamaCare reimbursement cuts actually outpace the increase in their patient volume, meaning they’re doing more work for less money: “Continued implementation of cuts in the Affordable Care Act, cuts in Medicare reimbursement, a switch to value-based payments, and lack of Medicaid expansion in Missouri are among many reasons that the Springfield Communities will see at least $30 million less revenue in the coming year, despite taking care of more patients.”– Alan Scarrow, president
Montana: Lolo Family Practice shutdown. It was the only medical care in Lolo. People will have to travel to the next town for healthcare.
Nevada: ObamaCare created Nevada Health Co-Op shutdown, admitting that it cannot make enough money under ObamaCare to pay for day-to-day operating costs! Nye Regional Medical Center went bankrupt in 2013 and even with taxpayer assistance finally shutdown. News reports say there is now only one doctor in town and the nearest hospital is more than an hours drive away.
New Hampshire: Lakeview NeuroRehabilitation Center shutdown. It’s officially being blamed on an investigation by the Disability Rights Center. However, the Associated Press points out that ever since ObamaCare went into effect in 2013 “…13 states had shut down state-run developmental centers, and many more are on the path to closure. ….moving away from placing people in institutions and focusing instead on caring for them within their homes…”. The owner of Lakeview NeuroRehabilitation Center blames drastic cuts to Medicaid payments and the fact that ObamaCare has cut the number of patients in the 88 bed treatment center to just 10!
New Jersey: After allowing ‘his’ Saint Michael’s Medical Center to go chapter 11 bankrupt, God made it official and allowed administrators to issue a mass shutdown WARN, saying 1,445 people will become jobless by October! Three hospitals in Hudson County (Bayonne Medical Center, Christ Hospital and Hoboken University Medical Center) laid off a total of 80 employees. Insurance company MetLife issued a mass layoff WARN for operations in Somerset, 136 jobs lost by the end of October!
New Mexico: More ObamaCare vampires as the United Blood Services, the only blood collection agency in the Land of Enchantment, laid off an undisclosed number of people and announced they are now sending blood donations to Texas for processing.
New York: In Utica, Bosch Healthcare Systems shutdown, at least 23 jobs lost. Fresenius Medical Care-Brooklyn Kidney Center shutdown their Park Slope dialysis center, affecting 65 employees and 150 Medicaid and Medicare patients! The dumb Medicare and Medicaid recipients are oblivious to the fact that ObamaCare is causing all these healthcare shutdowns. Also in Brooklyn, medical supplies company GeriMedix shutdown, 52 jobs lost. In Skaneateles, it’s been revealed that the new owners of medical device maker Welch Allyn, Hill-Rom, is shutting down factories and laying off hundreds of employees in consolidation operations. NYC based insurance company and drugs maker Pfizer announced their plan to takeover rival Hospira has been approved, so get ready for mass layoffs as redundant jobs are eliminated. Pfizer also issued a shutdown WARN for their Rouses Point ops, by Xmas. Addict rehab operation Phoenix House issued a shutdown WARN for their NYC and South Kortright residential programs, at least 50 jobs lost in time for Thanksgiving. That Which Cannot Be Named refuses to stop ObamaCare from forcing Menorah Licensed Homecare from laying off 63 people in Getzville. That Which Cannot Be Named refuses to stop ObamaCare from forcing Menorah Home & Hospital from issuing a shutdown WARN for their Adult Day Health Center in Brooklyn, 47 jobs lost by October. State and federal Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) regulators shutdown non-profit Health Republic Insurance. News reports say it’s the fourth non-profit insurance co-op in the United States shutdown by ObamaCare regulators! Drugs maker Novartis Pharmaceuticals shutting down their Suffern factory sometime after Xmas, at least 54 jobs lost. Liberty Healthcare lost their contract to operate the Westchester Behavioral Health Center, at least 199 jobs lost right after Thanksgiving! Morrison Management Specialists lost their food service contract at the Nostrand Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 40 jobs lost. The insane New York State Office of Mental Health shutting down the Children’s Psychiatric Center in West Seneca, and moving the children into an adult center in Buffalo!
North Carolina: Winston-Salem based Novant Health to layoff 4-hundred people! Administrators said Novant Health is “financially healthy and strong today” but that ongoing “declining reimbursements and many other challenges” caused by ObamaCare are forcing them to re-organize.
North Dakota: In Fargo, Metro Drugs shutdown by the end of the month, blaming crashing sales despite the recent oil boom that skyrocketed the population. BlueCross BlueShield eliminated 73 jobs. Because of ObamaCare the insurance company lost the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System contract.
Ohio: CVS Pharmacy eliminating 232 Ominicare jobs starting at the end of October! It should be noted that Omnicare got a 2011 tax incentive in exchange for promising to create 630 jobs by 2022. Lorain County shutting down the county run but not taxpayer funded Golden Acres Nursing Home: “….we’ve been losing money. The general fund doesn’t have money to subsidize it, and it shouldn’t. We can’t use taxpayer money to subsidize the home.”-Lori Kokoski, county commissioner
Oregon: In Portland, CP Medical shutting down by July 2016, at least 88 jobs lost.
Pennsylvania: California based “specialty pharmaceutical” (oxycodone-OxyContin) company Impax Labs shutdown their Pittsburgh ops, 86 jobs lost. Jameson Hospital shutdown their maternity ward a month sooner than planned. Lehigh County taxpayer funded Cedarbrook nursing homes eliminating as many as 45 jobs.
Rhode Island: Rhode Island Hospital to shutdown an “early intervention program” at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and eliminate 2-hundred jobs: “Rhode Island Hospital faces costs that are rising faster than reimbursement rates….”
South Carolina: Medical products maker Hill-Rom eliminated 70 jobs. That’s a huge drop from the number of employees they had in 2008, according to local news reports Hill-Rom at one time employed 4-hundred people in that location. Hill-Rom is consolidating their manufacturing and call center ops.
Texas: In El Paso, Houchen Community Center shutdown their Child Care Development Center in Segundo Barrio blaming “a lack of income and increasing costs.” Local news reports say tax filings confirm Houchen Community Center is losing money. Once California based but now Germany owned Fireman’s Fund Insurance shutdown their Dallas office. Local news reports say at one time their Ross Tower location employed 4-hundred people! Fireman’s Fund was taken over by Germany’s Allianz in the 1990s. But since the implementation of ObamaCare, Allianz has been carving up and selling off Fireman’s Fund. San Antonio based United Allergy Services to fire ten people from their HQ and an undisclosed number of employees elsewhere. The allergy treatment company is also pulling out of some of the U.S. states where it operates, blaming problems with insurance reimbursements. Upscale doctor owned for-profit Forest Park Medical Center at Frisco chapter 11 bankrupt busted. According to a local news report “…a tightening of a pre-existing law under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, essentially bans physician-owned facilities such as Forest Park from receiving Medicare and Medicare reimbursements…”
Virginia: Israel based drugs maker Teva Pharmaceuticals announced they will layoff 33 people in Forest. The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association warned that Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is making healthcare worse. They said increasing operating costs and decreasing payments will result in state run hospitals shutting down and thousand of people becoming unemployed!
Washington: Linds Pharmacy in Coupeville shutdown. The pissed owner blames his forced sale on ObamaCare insurance companies: “Our main financial challenge has been the pharmacy insurance companies and their continual lowering of fees and insistence on patients using their mail-order houses. Lowered prescription volumes, coupled with lowered fees, equals financial problems.”
Washington DC: Prescription drugs prices for the more than 15-million people on Medicare part D will skyrocket. The whole thing is a False Flag operation being touted as a way to reduce ER visits and save taxpayers money: “Medicare beneficiaries should carefully review their prescription drug plan options in 2016. With many plans taking large premium increases in 2016, those beneficiaries that choose not to change plans will likely pay more in premiums than if they look for lower-cost options.”-Colin Shannon, Avalere Health
West Virginia: Affordable Care Act is the final straw for mental healthcare provider Process Strategies, so they laid off 37 employees: “We just could not sustain it any more…”-Jim Strawn
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
2nd quarter 2015: “The mortality rates will increase, we will have deaths….” “…extremely low…reimbursement levels…have finally proven impossible to bear.”