10.18.2010

Qualcomm slashes health care benefits in response to ObamaCare law

The W.C. Varones Blog broke the news in May that Qualcomm was planning to slash health care benefits in response to ObamaCare.

Word now comes from a Qualcomm employee that benefit cuts were announced last week.

Anyone with details or documents, please send them to wcvarones -at- gmail -dot- com. Please don't cc: flag@whitehouse.gov.

UPDATE: Boeing does too!
Aerospace giant Boeing is joining the list of companies that say the new health care law could have a potential downside for their workers.

In a letter mailed to employees late last week, the company cited the overhaul as part of the reason it is asking some 90,000 nonunion workers to pay significantly more for their health plan next year. A copy of the letter was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

"The newly enacted health care reform legislation, while intended to expand access to care for millions of uninsured Americans, is also adding cost pressure as requirements of the new law are phased in over the next several years," wrote Rick Stephens, Boeing's senior vice president for human resources.

... and about that cost curve....

I guess Nancy Pelosi was right: we had to pass the bill to find out what was in it! How's that Hope and Change working out for you?

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Word is that your blog is full of shit. Post something substantial like an actual announcement, or just shut it with the fearmongering.

Ilya said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Capitalist pigs. If everyone had free health care then health care benefit slashes would not be a problem. The rich should pay for a 50% income tax. Let the poor have equal opportunities you greedy swine. Obama is trying to Socialize things that people need. Stop spreading fear. This is america , we should all be equal. Its on the declaration of independence. Real Americans believe in Socialized services. Or maybe you do not like Obama because he is black. Say what you want to say and stop beating around the bush.

W.C. Varones said...

Anonymous 2:42,

I would love to post the documents.

Please contact Qualcomm HR and have them send us the 2010 and 2011 benefit plans and I will post them prominently.


Anonymous 2:56,

Good idea. Even better, how about "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." I can't believe nobody thought of that before!

Shane Atwell said...

Wow. Got hot in here all of a sudden. Funny thing is, these jerks won't stick around to comment when it becomes official.

Anonymous said...

anonymous 2:56

"capitalist pigs"?? that's the best you can do? 16 + years of slavishly lapping up indoctrination/instructions as to what to think from the not-to-ever-be-questioned, godlike profs, and THAT'S the best you can do???

what about some of the *other*, less-cliched idiot commie slogans? "imperialist running dogs", say? or "tools of the jewish banking elite"?

post something original, loser - and not *delusional*, such as that "real americans believe in socialized services" codswallop, or just shut it with the democrat sloganeering.

hey, this is FUN!! snarling at people whose politics i disagree with; letting them know how stupid they are for not agreeing with me....

Negocios Loucos said...

WC, your mongering of fear has worked; I'm terrified. YOU MONGERER!

Anonymous said...

Way to cherry pick your quotes. How bout putting the other parts of the article in, like:

""We want to manage our costs so this tax doesn't apply to our plan, but that's down the road," said Forte. "If this health care law hadn't passed, would we be making changes to the health care benefit? Absolutely. For competitive reasons."
In the letter to Boeing employees, Stephens said out-of-control health care inflation is hampering Boeing's ability to compete with other manufacturers. Its major civilian aviation competitor, Airbus, is based in Europe, where governments shoulder the burden of health care costs.
Stephens also cited lifestyle issues, such as people who are overweight and do not adequately exercise, as the third major reason for the cost shift. The health care law ranked second among the three, ahead of lifestyle factors."

W.C. Varones said...

Anonymous 9:07,

So as long as health care costs were already a problem, you don't mind that ObamaCare made the problem worse?

Hope and Change! We'll make everything worse, but who cares?

Anonymous said...

The rumor's unsubstantiated, same as before. And put simply, there's been no such announcement.

W.C. Varones said...

Nice non-denial denial.

You holding the official announcement until after the election?

Care to send the 2010 and 2011 benefits plans so we can compare?

Anonymous said...

Have your "source" do it; I'm not risking my job, thanks.

W.C. Varones said...

Your health care benefits are so top secret that they'd fire you for sharing a copy?

Mmmmmkay....

Anonymous said...

1. Proprietary is proprietary.

2. I'm telling you the announcement you claim to have already happened... hasn't. You respond by saying "oh, they're waiting." Pick a lie.

3. You're demanding proof to refute something you presented without proof.

4. What you call "ObamaCare" is a conservative butchering of what should have been something better. That's a fairly ignorant name to apply to it just on its face.

Negocios Loucos said...

Anonymous Qualcomm employee, what is a less ignorant name for the health care that Obama championed and then signed into law?

W.C. Varones said...

The cuts were announced to some employees last week.

Apparently some other employees are being kept in the dark.

Don't worry, I'm sure they'll tell you after the election.

And if ObamaCare is a "conservative butchering," please name the conservatives who voted for it.

Dean said...

W.C., thanks for the link.

Anon, the fact that Boeing was going to make some of these changes with or without ObamaCare proves that ObamaCare has done nothing... absolutely nothing to address the current problem of health care cost inflation as they promised.

And now ObamaCare has only exacerbated these already run-away costs by mandating more benefits which will only result in higher premiums.


ObamaCare: doing nothing to solve today's problems while adding a myriad of new problems for the future.

Anonymous said...

Benefits adjustments and changes are made almost every year based on utilization and cost effectiveness.

Your insinuation that benefits were "slashed" is completely false.

The fact is that Qualcomm continues to pay 100% of the health care costs for it's employees. This is more than generous! Of course, you would label this as a "socialist" practice. I mean shouldn't each individual pay their own way? Why should a company pay for my health care?

W.C. Varones said...

This is an argument from a Qualcomm employee?

As a Qualcomm shareholder, I tremble for the future of the company if this is the quality of people they're hiring.

1) The fact is that Qualcomm continues to pay 100% of the health care costs for it's employees.

Wow. No co-pays, no deductibles, and no employee contributions to premiums? You sure about that?

2) Of course, you would label this as a "socialist" practice.

Um, no. There's nothing socialist about businesses and individuals voluntarily agreeing on wage and benefit packages.

What the hell kind of idiot indoctrination college did you go to, and why did a fine company like Qualcomm hire you?

W.C. Varones said...

... and for future reference, Anonymous, "socialist" is when a bunch of asshats in Washington pass a 2000+ page bill that micromanages everybody's lives, when it's written by corrupt lobbyists and no one in Congress has even read it.

Anonymous said...

here you go genius, why don't you read up on how much employees contribute to their premiums

http://www.qualcomm.com/careers/pro/us_sd/benefits.html#medical

Why don't you bookmark the page, then compare that to any changes that are made and see how much "slashing" is going on.

In fact, if you have such insider knowledge about what is going on, why don't you share it with your readers? Please do tell everybody what was slashed, I'm sure everybody wants to know.

Of course you won't because the truth will make you look like the idiot you are...instead you will continue to spew your lying bs.

W.C. Varones said...

Gee, that doesn't look like 100% of health care costs to me. I see lots of deductibles and co-pays and co-insurance costs to the employee.

See you in November!

Anonymous said...

The changes are actually already available. Guess what? They reduced co-pays, eliminated lifetime limits, and got rid of pre-existing condition exclusions for kids. Yeah, they really slashed employee benefits alright.

W.C. Varones said...

So show us the 2010 and 2011 documents side by side!

Anonymous said...

Proprietary information. Qualcomm employees can view it by going to the health plan information page on the benefits site. The link says 1/1/10 but the information has been updated for 2011.

John Harrington said...

I'm a QCOM employee and can vouch for the IMPROVEMENT in benefits. The notice in my email said that the improvements were "a result of the new U.S. Health Care Reform (HCR) legislation."

You're a moron.

W.C. Varones said...

So they increased your benefits and didn't raise your premiums at all? I don't buy it. Show us the plan documents.

Anonymous said...

You're not a Qualcomm employee, so why do you care? Every employee got the memo about the improvements now and can view the changes on the internal benefits site. There's no reason why we need to send it to you, just to prove you wrong. It's actually gratifying keeping you out of the loop, since you're a major doucher. Also, your "insider" is obviously either made up or lying to you for shiggles.

Happy Super Tuesday!