It must be noted that I started documenting these ObamaCare/healthcare related shutdowns at the beginning of 2014. In that year I posted the reports biannually (every six months). In 2015 ObamaCare cutbacks ramped up and I posted quarterly (every three months). For the past three months of 2016 there have been so many ObamaCare cutbacks that I’ve posted a report every month!
Incomplete list of healthcare related layoffs and shutdowns, March 2016.
“What we don’t know is where we go from here.”-Alissa Fox, Blue Cross Blue Shield senior vice president, commenting on her insurance company’s latest study which proves the insurance industry totally doesn’t understand the healthcare needs of sick people! The study shows that when the health insurance industry wrote ObamaCare they totally underestimated the actual costs of healthcare!
A USA Today report revealed that at least 350 water suppliers to daycares and public schools across the United States are serving up lead contaminated water! Is that the real reason for increased school violence? (stop blaming guns, lead poisoning is directly connected to violent behavior)
A study by ValuePenguin says 80% of High-Deductible Health Insurance Plans don’t qualify for the ObamaCare Health Savings Account tax break!
Alabama: After 20 years Birmingham based healthcare diagnostics lab Atherotech suddenly shutdown at the end of February, now chapter 7 bankrupt busted directly blaming ObamaCare for its death: “…Atherotech has worked hard to overcome numerous business challenges that resulted from adverse changes in the regulatory environment, increased pressure from commercial insurance payors and continued compression of profit margins…. ….we have been unsuccessful in convincing our lenders to cooperate so that we can extend the financing necessary to allow us to continue operations. As a result, we are now forced to close permanently.”
California: Non-profit Memorial Care Health System shutting down their Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, 194 jobs lost by May! It’s blamed on failed attempts to get state ‘lawmakers’ to pass a bill that would’ve turned the medical center into a outpatient operation (no thanks to ObamaCare). Sutter Central Valley Hospitals issued multiple layoff WARNs, at least 96 jobs lost in several locations by the end of April. Southern Home Care Services shutting down their San Leandro ops, 123 employees unemployed by May! Memorial Health Services shutting down their San Clemente operations, 194 jobs lost by the end of May! Illinois based drugs maker Baxalta issued several layoff WARNs, 239 jobs in three cities gone by May, due to being taken over by an Irish company! San Francisco based drugs dealer McKesson eliminating at least 1-thousand 6-hundred jobs due to the loss of several buyers! In San Diego, non-profit Scripps Health eliminating 1-hundred jobs, blaming ObamaCare: “….Scripps is financially strong, but we cannot continue to allow our costs and operations to rise while our revenue continues to be flat.”-Chris Van Gorder, ceo who took over in 2002 promising “no layoffs”
In Watsonville, the owner of the Crossroads shopping center served eight tenants with eviction notices, after selling out to a huge healthcare provider! It’s the same landlord that’s kicking out the Orchard Supply hardware store. The eight mom-n-pop tenants being kicked out in the next 30 days are Crossroads Books, Arcadia Hair Salon, Wild Rose Artists’ Supplies & Custom Framing, Jansen Music, The Gamer’s Den, Queen’s Shoes & More, Trop-Aquarium & Pet Center and Claudio Franca Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Some of the tenants have been there for the past 22 years! You can blame this on the Crossroads property owner signing a more lucrative deal to allow healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente to move in. City administrators are pissed at the uncouth healthcare provider and greedy property owner, who gave no warning of the deal: “It’s not a good way for them to come into the community, by kicking out eight businesses with eviction notices. I am going to make sure they know that the mayor is opposed to the 30-day eviction…..!”-Felipe Hernandez, mayor
Connecticut: Expect mass hospital layoffs as gov’na Malloy is refusing to issue $140-million USD in payments to state hospitals! To show you how much The Constitution State is a Failed State, republican ‘lawmakers’ claim they’re willing to cut their own pay by 10% in order to get a budget passed! Gov’na Malloy shutting down two nursing homes, Ella T. Grasso Center and the Meriden Center, 171 jobs lost by June! At least 40 aging and disabled residents kicked to the curb! Gov’a Malloy claims the shutdowns will actually help the state ‘care’ for more people! Germany based Siemens Healthcare shutting down their Brookfield diagnostics ops, at least 236 jobs lost by March 2018! Hartford based healthcare provider Aetna eliminated 26 jobs with its iTriage App in Colorado. Aetna then announced plans to merge iTriage App with WellMatch App. No word on how many more IT jobs will be lost.
Florida: In Miami, Noven Pharmaceuticals issued a WARN, 80 jobs lost in May. In Gulf Breeze, God powerless to stop the shutdown of ‘his’ more than 60 years old WaterFront Rescue Mission for women, and consolidate ‘his’ men’s shelters, and sell off ‘his’ Olive Road Career Development Center and lay off 20 paid staff. The homeless shelter funded itself mainly with recycling projects, but because of the crash in prices of recycled goods they’re now broke: “We’ve been in the business of trying to help people, so we have given away every dollar.”-Devin Simmons
Local news media pointed out that most homeless shelters are packed to capacity with homeless people with mental problems or addictions, and as a result the growing number healthy and employed, yet homeless people (mainly women) are being kicked to the curb: “We just don’t have the beds available for women who don’t have a substance abuse problem or mental health.”-John Johnson, EscaRosa Coalition
Yet more medical school shutdowns! The first victim of non-profit Zenith Education Groups massive cutbacks; Everest University announced it must shutdown campuses in Lakeland, Brandon and two in Tampa Bay, affecting at least 343 medical students: “It’s a slap in the face for everybody really!”-Angela Adams, medical billing student
Idaho: Despite state senator Dan Schmidt giving back his state taxpayer funded health plan to protest republicans’ continued refusal to ‘close the healthcare gap’, Right to Work ‘elected christian lawmakers’ have killed the bill to expand healthcare coverage to those in The Gap, proving they’re evil sadistic genocidal maniacs! I’ve reported how the director of an east Idaho hospital directly blames Idaho’s version of ObamaCare for killing at least 1-thousand Idahoans, due to The Gap! And after ‘christian lawmakers’ shit-canned a bill to close the ObamaCare healthcare gap for at least 78-thousand people (also attributed to killing 1-thousand Idahoans) a new U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report shows Idaho is the second worst state for lack of healthcare for low-income people with mental problems or addictions. Interestingly the top two offenders, Utah (ranked at 40% of low-income disabled residents uninsured) and Idaho (ranked 39% uninsured), are both densely packed with Mormons/Christians (U.S. Census Bureau data), who also dominate their government services. Evil Blue Cross of Idaho ended its ObamaCare exchange coverage of dialysis, resulting in many Idahoans with no way to pay for treatment. The Idaho Statesman newspaper says Blue Cross is refusing to cover any medical service provider that is not willing to take Blue Cross’ cutthroat rates. The Idaho Department of Insurance refuses to comment about the issue, claiming they’re investigating it. Dozens more Idahoans could die.: “…we were with Blue Cross last year, when I was diagnosed with kidney failure…started…hemodialysis…..then we got a bill for $115,000….. Blue Cross of Idaho did not re-up our contract…”-Debbie Birch
The Post Register reporting that a yet another newbie to The Gem State (who moved here from a more ‘socialist’ state) got a big shock when he enrolled with Blue Cross through Idaho’s ObamaCare exchange (Your Health Idaho). The man is suffering from cancer but recently was told by the pharmacy that his prescriptions would not longer be filled because of Blue Cross. Let me explain how evil Blue Cross of Idaho is; the cancer patient’s treatment is so expensive that he’s getting financial help from charities on top of his Affordable Care Act insurance, however, Blue Cross told him ObamaCare does not allow “third party funding” of medical treatments! But get this, in a follow up interview with Blue Cross the Post register said that suddenly everything is fine and they will go ahead and pay for the man’s prescriptions!
Illinois: After 27 years Monticello Drugs shutdown, ObamaCare was the final straw for the owner: “…after a burden of 27 years of ownership, the pleasure has just gone out of it.”-Marty Woodruff
God powerless to stop ObamaCare from forcing ‘his’ Catholic Presence Health to eliminate 7-hundred jobs through attrition and outright layoffs! CEO Michael Englehart said ObamaCare was forcing them “to get in line”. In Westmont, IlliCare Health shutdown due to loss of contract, 68 jobs lost. Troubled drugs maker Abbott Laboratories about to fire 180 U.S. workers and replace them with migrants from India: “-You have given 180 U.S. employees 60-days notice, and their last day of employment at Abbott Labs will be April 22, 2016.
-To add insult to injury, the Abbott Labs IT staff who will be laid off will first be forced to train their replacements.
–You have awarded Wipro Ltd, a large Indian outsourcing firm, with a contract to take over the jobs of these American workers.
-You are offering the U.S. workers severance of a week’s pay for each year they spent at the company, but in order to receive this severance you are requiring these employees to sign away their right to sue or disparage the company. The severance packet you gave your workers contains a full-page ad listing jobs at Wipro.
-The people you are laying off have stellar experience, credentials, and performance reviews, and some have been with your company for 15-20 years.”-Dick Durbin, U.S. Senator
Iowa: After more than 1-hundred years (surviving The Great depression and numerous recessions) Kingston Hill old folks home shutting down in May, administrators say that after all this time ObamaCare reimbursement reductions render Kingston Hill “financial unsustainable”.
Maine: Penobscot Valley Hospital eliminating 10 jobs due to crashing revenues. Administrators say the hospital has been losing money since 2012 due to declining local population. Merrymeeting Behavioral Health Associates shutting down in Brunswick, 170 jobs lost due to 80% funding cuts! Non-Profit bus service Coastal Trans ceasing to exist due to 100% funding cuts for disabled passengers! In Bangor, social service agency Getchell Agency now chapter 11 bankrupt busted blaming long term lawsuits and MaineCare: “I made the decision to file for bankruptcy after long hours of deliberation and legal consultation….I cannot continue to move forward shackled by mounting legal fees and under constant threat of multimillion-dollar judgments over which only the state has control.”-Rena Getchell
Maryland: Meritus Health shutting down their 30 years old Hagerstown child Learning Center in June. 125 children affected. Local news did not indicate a reason saying only that the decision to shut it down was made suddenly.
Massachusetts: Non-profit Mayo Clinic shutting down its 20 years old Andover lab, 105 jobs lost by the end of 2016! Work is being shifted to labs in Minnesota. Southcoast Health System laying off at least 95 employees in its hospital chain due to crashing revenues caused by ObamaCare. It should be noted that Southcoast Health System is trying to merge with another hospital chain that’s also eliminating jobs; Care New England of Rhode Island.
Michigan: Blue Cross Blue Shield eliminated 22 IT jobs, as part of their bigger plan to eliminate $300-million USD in Michigan jobs by 2018!
Missouri: In Maryland Heights, Belgium based Bellevue Pharmacy issued a layoff WARN, 150 jobs lost by May! The parent company Fagron blames it on ObamaCare for causing crashing reimbursement rates for drugs, to the tune of a $248-million USD crash in 2015! Fagron also warns that if things don’t improve revenue wise, they’ll be forced to sell-off Bellevue Pharmacy.
Montana: In Great Falls, the Teton County Nursing Home shutting down in May, 34 jobs lost. ObamaCare reimbursement reductions forced the county to beg the cash-strapped voters to approve a levy to fund the home, but it was rejected.
New York: That Which Cannot Be Named powerless stop the shutdown of ‘its’ Rosenthal Jewish Community Center of Northern Westchester, 72 jobs lost by the end of June. EmblemHealth Services shutting down their Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 82 jobs lost beginning at the end of May. It’s blamed on a lost contract. The Broome Developmental Center for disabled people shutting down on Thursday, 6-hundred jobs lost! Officially it’s blamed on federal rules changes and ObamaCare reduction in reimbursements, however, I should point out that last year at least one employee were arrested for sexually abusing the tenants.
North Carolina: In Winston-Salem, non-profit Community Care Center forced to shutdown their Med-Aid Pharmacy due to crashing donations and state taxpayer funding. Yep, even with ObamaCare there are still at least 530 low income people not covered by insurance, who rely on Med-Aid, in the Novant Health Medical Park area! Rite Aid shutting down their Charlotte distribution center, 270 jobs gone by the end of Spring, following the big trend this year of consolidating operations!
North Dakota: God powerless to stop ObamaCare from forcing ‘his’ Saint Alexius Health hospital to layoff 23 people and re-classify another 39. Inpatient rehab and child care services have been shutdown! They referred to ObamaCare as “Industry trends and other circumstances”.
Pennsylvania: Cancer treatment center Helomics eliminating 125 jobs in Pittsburgh by mid-April! J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital eliminated 11 jobs, and is being forced by ObamaCare to eliminate inpatient care and focus on outpatient services. Brockie Internal Medicine, Pine Grove Adult Medicine and Saint Charles Internal Medicine all shutting down! ObamaCare forcing them to be consolidated into one operation called WellSpan Internal Medicine, with a lot fewer employees. After suddenly laying off ambulance technicians in New York (back in February), with no final paychecks, TransCare suddenly shutdown their Monroeville facility, 120 people out of work and with no paychecks! Local TV news reports reveal even more bad news for employees.
Rhode Island: The evil state is finally shutting down a nursing home after years of multiple accusations of abuse, and even a death of a disabled resident; taxpayer funded College Park Apartments now shutdown. Care New England eliminating a minimum of 58 jobs at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, as well as shutting down the baby factory and the intensive care unit, blaming reduced payments caused by ObamaCare. Union reps say they were told as many as 2-hundred employees were being let go, hospital administrators told local news sources “If there are any additional workforce reductions, we would report it publicly at the time it occurs.”
Tennessee: God powerless to stop ‘his’ Texas owned Saint Francis Hospital from laying off 33 people. Administrators said ObamaCare was forcing them to do business “more efficiently.”
Washington: In Bellingham, Medicare policy seller Sterling Insurance shutting down their Barkley District office, 55 jobs lost by May.
Washington DC: Taxpayer funded United Medical Center eliminating 112 jobs as a result of demands by city administrators to reduce costs by $10-million!
Wisconsin: After more than 1-hundred years (surviving The Great Depression and numerous recessions) Kremer Pharmacy shutdown. River Hills West Health Center shutting down, 144 jobs lost starting in May!
ObamaCare job destruction, February 2016: “…how could this be?” Hospital director says Idaho’s ObamaCare killed 1-thousand people, so far!
ObamaCare = Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification