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Obamacare: Now Appearing On Your Restaurant Bill
That the bulk of Americans (especially those 4+ million whose insurance policies have recently been cancelled as a result of the ACA) have to pay more for healthcare as a result of Obamacare, is now largely accepted and well-known. But did you know that the cost of Obamacare is slowly metastasizing to other places? Such as your restaurant bill.
Presenting Exhibit A.
Several restaurants in a Florida chain are asking customers to help foot the bill for Obamacare. Diners at eight Gator's Dockside casual eateries are finding a 1% Affordable Care Act surcharge on their tabs, which comes to 15 cents on a typical $15 lunch tab. Signs on the door and at tables alert diners to the fee, which is also listed separately on the bill.
The Gator Group's full-time hourly employees won't actually receive health insurance until December. But the company said it implemented the surcharge now because of the compliance costs it's facing ahead of the Affordable Care Act's employer mandate kicking in in 2015.
"The costs associated with ACA compliance could ultimately close our doors," the sign reads. "Instead of raising prices on our products to generate the additional revenue needed to cover the costs of ACA compliance, certain Gator's Dockside locations have implemented a 1% surcharge on all food and beverage purchases only."
The company employs a total of 500 people, with about half working full-time. Currently only management receives health benefits, but the restaurant will have to offer coverage to all full-timers once the mandate takes effect. The fee will allow the company to continue offering full-time hours to many workers, according to Sandra Clark, the group's director of operations.
"I'm just trying to keep the employees I have that I've worked hard to train," Clark said.
In addition to the costs of providing health care, the company hired one additional staffer and a consulting firm to make sure it is complying with the law and to assist in the additional tracking of workers' hours and wages required by Obamacare, said Clark.
Clark is not sure how much the company is spending on compliance, but estimates that it will cost $500,000 a year to extend insurance to its full-time hourly restaurant workers. The surcharge may bring in about $160,000 a year, she hopes.
So more surcharges coming then.
The bottom line decision for businesses: fire your workers, or pass through the costs to other consumers. Many have done the fomer, or converted full-time workers to part-time status. Increasingly more are opting for the latter. How long until the popular outcry that this latest "freebie" by the government was anything but.
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/s
I read the whole story elsewhere. The 1% surcharge is actually, of course, only "a start." The surcharge would be higher if it covered the whole cost. Also doesn't touch on scheduled big obummycare price increases.
Really! I Only had a grilled chicken wrap and water!!
But, but, but, he skipped the bread
NO bread on the chili cheese dog. Give him some credit.
Gold Trade Numbers 2013 Broke All Records
http://www.ingoldwetrust.ch/gold-trade-numbers-2013-broke-records
Now that is frickin funny
Look at what that dude is eating. His ACA charge should be higher.
That's next, cept da goobermint will collect that one.
These restaurants, if they want to stay in business should just add this 1% to the cost of the food.Doing it the way they are, assures less patrons,and having to cut waitstaff, and ultimately Hang a Sign Out of Bus.IF I started to enter any PLACE of business and saw this on the door, I would not buy there,nor even enter.No way I would support it any further than we are being FORCED to already.
Just what it's meant to be... a tax.
exactly....which then does not show up in CPI as inflation but revenue! very clever and fraudulant no?
A tax. That's the main takeaway.
These extortion rackets are getting out of hand. There are measures a government could take to make basic healthcare available to all for modest fees, but this ain't it.
NO, THERE ARE NOT ANY MEASURES WHATSOEVER!!!!
Organized crime lacks the ability, let alone the desire, to provide efficient goods and services.
And it's people like you demanding that they do so, who provide the criminals with all of the cover they need to steal while destroying the lives of others.
The measures of which you speak can only come voluntarily from free individuals. To insist they must come from the barrel of a gun held by the criminal class is to display unfathomable immaturity.
Honestly, this shit isn't that hard. Well, other than having to admit your culpability for support of The Beast.
POLITICS IS EVIL. ALWAYS HAS BEEN. ALWAYS WILL BE.
How about pulling off anti-competative restrictions and restrictions to entry?
Power vacuums ALWAYS get filled.
Limited government program, meet slippery slope.
The income tax amendment to our constitution was done to enable taxing the very richest just a little bit. The Roberts court used it to uphold Obamacare when they couldn't stomach murdering the commerce clause with a further Orwellian push to have it cover individual, intrastate, NONcommerce.
Ah this is just the beginning - in a few years your restaurant bill will look like the following -
1) ACA charge - 1%
2) Employee soap in bathroom for hepatitus protection - 1%
3) Priviledge of easting on clean plates and flatware - 1%
4) Local Health Laws Compliance Charge - 3%
5) Parking on city street - 2% we do pay taxes on the little cash that we repor
6) Front Door Homeless Beggar removal surcharge -1%
7) On call MD for food poisoning - 2%
8) Toilet Paper Fee - Females 1% - Males .05%
and on and on
8) CORRECTED ~ Females 1% Males .05% WHITE Males 100% Gays & Blacks 0%
9) Repeal 2nd Amendment campaign surtax 100%
10) El Presidente re-election fund 100%
11) El Presidente 24/7 news & propaganda channel subsidy 100%
Are you telling me that at $10 meal costs more than 50 bucks after all these neat new fees?
That's barely noticeable!
I know it's only a JOKE... but it's FUNNY anyway...
~~~
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/o/Obama-Gas-Stations.htm#.Uw-BxM77XRY
You remember how the real world outdid The Onion? ObamaGas might not be an impossibility...
Anywayze... I eat for FREE...
~~~
Cuz I know I got me sum dum ass 'whitey' tribe members stuck up dere in doze ivory towerz hoo used da TV & sez a bunch of bulls*** dat doze other motherfukkin whietys be-eivd... So I'm good yo...
Jenkem bitchez! Peace Out!
FUCK THIS SHIT
If I see an ACA surcharge, it's coming right out of someone's tip.
Stop and think. Other restaurants are under the same pressure, they just increase their prices to include the ACA tax. You're advocating a head-in-the-sand policy.
Having been a waiter I cannot condone penalizing the waiter but there is no question that these ACA costs to the employers will be passed on to the consumers in some way.
The penalization for the waiter will come when less business is done after people find out that their 1200 calorie dinner has a unhealthy tax added to it by your friendly neighborhood taxman...I mean ACA approved government official.
"If I see an ACA surcharge, it's coming right out of someone's tip. "
That is fair. Their wait staff's compensation increased, in fhe form of benefits added. Deducting the surcharge from the tip leaves you, the server, and the restaurant owner with the same relative set of costs and benefits as before the ACA if the entire ACA surcharge is listed on the bill.
The server just has the 'benefit' of the government mandating they spend their income on insurance. The should vote accordingly if they'd prefer to make insurance decisions themselves
Restaurants have been reducing portions and raising prices since 08. They can keep doing that for about 20-25% more before people stop coming.
Yeah ~ but you'll never COMPLETELY erase the 'cravings' to eat DOG SHIT food at a rat infested establishment...
~~~
They'll have to retaliate by having nude teenage waitresses [at zero pay]...
A waiter-terminator tablet that summons a nude teenage intern-waitress who brings me a "reduced-guilt" portion of DOG SHIT that includes a surcharge for ACA and also conveniently decreases the quality of my own health out of the sheer lack of nutrition?
I'd like two of those, please.
What was the address of that establishment again. I havn't seen pert titties in 5 decades. Ill cum for de tits
datz whattaIM sayin YO...
I thought about it. Seems to be along the lines of the "Gay and Proud" vs "In the Closet". Depending upon the crowd, each one elicits either joy or anger (anger, not necessarily hate). To me it says they're a supporter of the ACA and they think that will increase business. Otherwise they'd have stayed quiet and lost or gained no business. I think they strategized wrong.
you are well-spoken!!
How long before Pelosi/Reid make it a felony to surcharge on account of ACA
The first time they see that personal insult to Democrats on their bill.
HHS already regulated such, threatening businesses for reducing employees with the intent of dodging ACA costs and mandates. So you have to decide this some other way, using winks and nods and probably some vulgar gestures, then cook up other explicit reasons for it.
Gator's bitches better be using jimmies!
The authors of the ACA remind me of the two super-cops on top of the building at the beginning:
"You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Aim for the bushes?"
Fist bump, jump.
I haven't seen a good desk pop in a long time!
I neva leave da house witout my 'gym hat' on... cutie after cutie... [WHY "2"?]... Cux itz da same song...
In the socialist do-gooder mindset, this would never happen because every company understands their obligation to the 'social contract', and willingly absorbs additional costs and takes a smaller profit.
A mindset implies that these people have minds. On the other hand, perhaps these people have just have a mind (singular). Mob mentality and collective consciousness is how I would descibe these people. They must plug their brain-like grey matter into their Ipads every night (similar to the Borg) to download their statist propoganda. Resistance is futile.
Wake people up folks! Spread the word ( beyond this web site). If enough people wake up this mess can be averted.
even though its basically already at the point of "call up your sister, because she's never seen a live train wreck before"...
Something like 4% - 10% of people in society make the decisions, early adopters, the rest of the herd just follows. Once there is consensus... Which is why Divide & Conquer is used extensively.
Have you ever tried to get an Obama voter to change his way of thinking or even just acquiesce on a single trivial point? Facts and rational thinking don't work on these people.
It's too late for this third rate shithole nation. Accept it and plan accordingly.
No it can't. Too late
It's the law of the land....as punctually and capriciously modified by the Jarrett administration and HHS and the IRS. Impeachable, technically.
Gee... let me head over to that restaurant and order some lobster rolls right now. Not.
Excellent! If more business outlined government mandated costs then maybe we will FINALLY see some government blowback in the US. If people saw line by line the complete shit they are paying for yet receiving no benefit from, perhaps popular opinion would sway in a libertarian direction.
I can dream can't I?
You want every receipt to be several pages to several thousand pages long? You are a dreamer.
Yes. No one in America: Land of the Convenient will stand for it.
The more we pass the buck we just extend the misery.
Healthcare is unaffordable and infected with greedy middlemen.
It's back needs to be broken along with that of the whole Ponzi; don't participate.
That rent-seeking company is just lying! Obamacare reduces health-care costs. And helps unemployment by ensuring there are fewer people in the workforce.
Make sure your sarcasm detectors are switched ON.
Healthcare is unaffordable and infected with greedy middlemen.
That line is what should appear on that receipt prior to the ACA charge
Dos inflation through taxes count towards the feds 2% inflation target?
a phone bill is chock full of itemized govt taxes - the sheep keep paying....
cable too
Not me - cut the chord awhile ago and never looked back. WTF support the media/gubermint combine that's destroying us. Cut down the cell phone to bare bones basic.
And unless it's an expensive account lunch I've pretty much stopped eating out all together.
Fuck them - economic protest is about all we have left. I try and support the local businesses much as I can.
BozoKarez is going to burn a giant hole right through what is left of the 'economy'.
You think your internet is free from the govvy taxes?
Last TV show I watched was the Super Bowl. Might have been my last Super Bowl too since they're trying to turn it into the Lingerie League with their hit penalties and word bannings.
Last TV show I watched was Mama's Family.
Like a buffet table for the government...
and everybody blames ma bell..., even the government.
Soon to be coming to many more locales I'm sure. Especially on things the young purchase. Didn't want to sign up for Obamacare? How 'bout $50 for that new app your just iching to have? And here's a monthly surcharge on all the apps you own. And what do you know, a new charge on your smart phone! Bend over people your gonna get it. Wake up or die.
Miffed;-)
That's the point..."ACA surcharges" won't always be listed on the bill. Just built into the new, higher everyday prices...
This is ridiculous! Why not a "surcharge" for his electricity or property taxes or federal income taxes or any other cost of doing business? Because they want to make a political statement. I think it will blow-up in their faces if fully covered. What's more likely, the waiters and waitresses will see reduced tips -- but the owners don't really care about that and we won't see coverage of that either since it's not as politically charged.
Because then they wouldn't be a restaurant any more...
They would be an airline.
Chili cheese dog for $6.49 lol
Both Gator and I can brew a gallon of tea for less than $0.50. Good thing he only charges $2.50 for those 16 oz free refills.
Can't afford $8.99 for a chicken sandwich anyway. Misallocation of capital, IMO.
And Obongocare will just make it even more...unaffordable.
lol! That is so hilarious. SOMEone is going to pay for someone else's healthcare, one way or another!
Re: SOMEone is going to pay for someone else's healthcare, one way or another!
Yes, but the Libertarian ideal of X chickens for high quality medical care is the way to go.
There are already doctors with web sites priced in this manner.
FYI, most of the EU has an overall Sales Tax (which they call VAT - Value-Add Tax) of ~ 16%.
The 'beauty' is, it's hidden in the bill: All you see is the total bill, w/o the VAT line item. Merchants are thus forced to bundle the VAT into the overall price.
/ Herr Dr. Goebbels would be proud. /s
Hmmm, I thought the VAT was clearly indicated on the reciept? Am I mixing it up with Canadia?
In France it was explicit on receipts of all sorts, including restaurants.
Since 50% of the population is getting government subsidies, that means this guy could go into to a restaurant and pay for his meal with his WIC card, which is a government subsidy, and pays another government subsidy surcharge to get free healthcare that he's already getting from some other government subsidized program. It's a damn circle jerk. WTF is going on in this country?
Re: WTF is going on in this country?
Everybody loves the socialist scam they are getting rich off of or living off of.
Socialism for me, not for thee.
Yes, but look at that GDP because of consumer spending! And think of the velocity of those dollars!
Faster Yellen! Kill! Kill!
What's going on is that the sheeple are chewing their cud and we're screaming that something's wrong and they just say "bah bah" and keep chewing.
Money for nothing and your grandchildern are never free.
"Tyranny" is what's going on.
re: WTF is going on in this country?
Well, everything's changed, thanks to the President-4-Rent era since 1980. You can (still) do very well, if you can Incorporate, with additional subsidiary offshore (tax advantages), and can afford a tax lawyer and CPA. IOW, you need to be in the high 6-figure bracket or more.
Else...you BetterCallSaul.com, if you're in the 90% who's just trying to make ends meet.
taxation without representation
remember those good ol days when we didnt HAVE to buy auto insurance?
what else will they force downour throats to purchase to benefit large corps?
The cost of auto insurance skyrocketed after they made it mandatory.
as did the cost of collision repairs.
They should have seperate prices for Democrats and Republicans....those that want more government and taxes should pay more for it..and those that want less should be charged less.....you would soon see everyone saying they were a Republican to get the cheaper prices...but Democrats have no problem with lies
youngman,
are you trying to imply that Bush 2.0 didn't spend money like a drunken sailor while in office?
could you remind me again which party was it that expanded medicaid prescription drug coverage that is gonna cost us all a fortune?
anyone that starts to spew bullshit regarding right vs left isn't very well informed.
I like the surchare idea.
I wish all my bills had a break down like this:
Big-MIC surcharge: $x
Big-AG surcharge: $y
Big-OldFart surcharge for all those leaches who think they are entitled to a senior discount surcharge: $z
Big-OldFart medicare surcharge $a
Big-OldFart medicare-part-d surcharge $b
Big-OldFart surcharge for all the leaches riding on medicare motor-scooters who think they are entitled to be fat and we have to pay: $c
Big-Road surcharge for the developers who create job $d
Big-Water surcharge for the leaches getting free water $e
Big-Airport surcharge for the free-enterprise loving airline $f
Big-AntiDrug surchage $g
Big-NSA surcharge $h
Yeah, it would be good to see how much other people's socialist scams actually cost.
This would be a FANTASTIC idea. Most of our taxes rely on the fact that noone realizes how badly they're being fucked until they run out of money. I would love to see the charges on everything.
You folks are idiots. If an employer can't afford to provide decent benefits to their employees they either need to get out of business or charge higher prices. Listing it as a tax is purely political and is attempt by the business owner to blame his taking advantage of employees on others. I would much rather pay more for a meal than to allow employers to privide less than living wages and benefits to their employees. Since we work to make it through life, work needs to provide enough to live life.
Then my cell phone carrier shouldn't list the charge for all the f'ing Obamaphones that I am paying for either? Why not be up front and list all the reasons why it's eventually going to cost $40 to buy a baked potato.
Re: business owner to blame his taking advantage of employees on others
You mean business owners aren't all virtuous and honest like in Ayn Rand novels?
That can't be true.
That is why you have .gov Unions because all the leadership is fair and honest. What need for a .gov Union unless the management is a bunch of selfish evil bastards?
The govt unions contribute to the government party. They aren't in opposition to their employer. They are in collusion.
I guess you have never eaten in San Francisco. "SF HealthTax" is clearly listed on the check just above the total.
typical short sighted thinking
have you any idea why that business exists in the first place|? its to provide goods and services to consumers. now if it costs more to provide those same goods and services, it will be reflected in the costs of those goods and services. if anything this gent should be commended for atleast being transparent about it. most liberals have no fucking idea whats involved in running a business.
You didn't build that chili cheese dog!
No, but I did eat it and many others like it, and now you all have to pay for my quadruple bypass at the point of a joint ACA-IRS gun. America, fuck yeah!
slightly skeptical.....what you're saying is slightly retarded.
Hurts your feelings does it?
Sad part about all the liberal panzies around, they live their lives based on emotion and not logic and reason.
So what if he wants to make a political statement? He can and should be able to put whatever the fuck he wants on his receipts - it's his business. Don't like it? Too bad. Grow a pair and either deal with it or don't go to his restaurant.
Oh, and you conveniently left out another option... he can get out of the business, charge higher prices... or reduce work force.
slightly,
well at least there's one other person here who understands what's going on.
this was a publicity stunt.
Single payer health care .. The only way to go.
Get rid of the parasitic insurance companies all together, and save a fortune, and much more than the 1% on the food bill!
As opposed to the "parasitic" and corrupt government that will operate socialist medicine?
Re: As opposed to the "parasitic" and corrupt government that will operate socialist medicine?
The OldFarts would like to point out that THEIR socialist medicine is NOT socialism. That's an entitlement they deserve, because they won double-u double-u two!
they are happy to b-tt f-ck their grandchildren
Replace one parasite with another? No thanks, they both can GTFO of the business of managing my body.
Medicare is 75% single payer and covers 16% of the population. It's per citizen cost is same as what other countries pay to cover 100% of their population. I'm not convinced that single payer in this country will approach costs seen in other countries.
What gives you the right to choose my healthcare for me?
When I was a kid you went to the doctor and wrote him a check when you left. No insurance, no copay, no deductible, no bullshit. Worked just fucking fine.
Your parents could buy a 'cancer policy' or a 'catastrophic' policy if they chose to. Nobody forced them to.
It was a better country.
LIES - ALL LIES!!!! Hairy Reid
Huh! Think yourself very lucky.
In the UK, government mandates that additional surcharges are added to gas/elec bills...8% on my gas bill and another 8% on my electric bill for "government environmental and social schemes".
But no mention is made of it on the bills. IOW: they're hidden from view.
I prefer the european approach of quoting the price that I will have to pay instead of having to calculate surcharges myself or wait for the bill
I find it more customer-friendly. I'd not be astonished to find out that we continentals forced this approach on you poor Britons. together with the metric system... ;-)
Which is why and how you have awful wait service at restaurants in Europe, at least as regards tipping.
sounds like you need to break out those roundhead helmets again and get rid of your newest elites. You've seen the playbook, it's been done once already.
This isn't an increase. It is merely a cost shift from the employees who were currently picking up the tab for their insurance to the customer/business which is now picking up the tab.
AND, if the employee wasn't already insured, we were already paying for his healthcare either through increased insurance rates on our own policies, or through the taxes we pay to cover the uninsured.
Clearly, there is, and never was, a free lunch.
Re: Clearly, there is, and never was, a free lunch.
Nonsense... OldFart medicare is completely free. Do you see ANYONE putting a surcharge listing OldFart's?
No, and you never will either because that IS a free-lunch (called a senior discount in the restaurant trade).
Imagine if they put a surcharge to reflect that diner"s share of the Federal government's deficit.
I expect a 1.5% offsetting discount when I pay with cash bitchez.
Your all fired
Long term unemployment benefits
Social Sec disability
SNAP... Here I come!
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me ...than a frontal labotomy!
I left my credit card in my other wallet. Do they accept bitcoin?
Would you like an order fries with your ACA(Obamacare) sir?
Stop your bitching slaves, and get back to work (if you can find any)!
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
Re: There's no such thing as a free lunch.
Tell that the young dumbasses paying for the OldFart's free lunches for the last 60+ years.
funny when you fuck with an economy the size of USSA, strange outcomes happen...why do you think none of our congress read the 2000+ page aca bills prior to voting?? this aca is like riding a jet into a mountain, you may get out alive but I doubt the economy will.
Re: this aca is like riding a jet into a mountain, you may get out alive but I doubt the economy will.
The top 20% will get out alive. When has the bottom 80% mattered to either political Team.
For everything else there is ObamaCare.
I thought lawyers, as a rule, did not speak the truth?
;)
YOU ARE GOING TO FUND ACA ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.
KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!
$2.49 for a glass of colored water should be the topic not the 1%.
The receipt says party of 1, so no free refills either. I live in Fl, and what this tells me is, no visits to that restaurant chain.
This stuff has been going on in San Francisco, where a smaller-scale universal insurance scheme is in effect, for quite some time now. Restaurants (or other service businesses) don't have to itemize this on a receipt, but many are doing just that. The additional fee is anywhere from 2-5%.
As far as I know there's no limit to it - as long as the extra money they collect is in fact going to pay for that cost. Not a few restaurant owning jagoffs decided to put that $ in their own pockets, to wit: http://www.sfgate.com/restaurants/article/Restaurateurs-settle-over-heal...
I would expect more of both of the above as business owners realize that this additional cost will either come out of their pockets or their customers' pockets. From what I've heard, it isn't affecting the servers' tips.
Good post and link. Thank you
That is exactly what will happen here. The owners of these restaurants will take the extra 1% margin they are charging and use it to pad their bottom line this year. It doesn't seem like a lot but it will really add up over the course of 2014 especially in what is a lower-margin business to begin with.
Currently, only management receives health benefits.
But they tried really, really hard to provide basic coverage to some of their full timers, honest, but they couldn't, because of Obama!
I think the ACA is a train wreck, unconstitutional, a cash grab for the debtocracy, and a bonanza for the large insurance companies which nevertheless may so fuck things up that single payer for the poors {and good coverage only for the top1%} will become inevitable...
But this doesn't mean some of the blame the ACA/Obama stuff isn't bullshit.
This, in my most humble opinion, may be some of that bullshit. I don't believe this hype.
I think the ACA is a train wreck, unconstitutional, a cash grab for the debtocracy, and a bonanza for the large insurance companies which nevertheless may so fuck things up that single payer for the poors {and good coverage only for the top1%} will become inevitable...
If these words are true, (and they are) Then the only "bullshit" that counts is that which has been dumped upon us by .gov
good for Gator's
They're being honest.
I would like the radiation seafood special with a side of bullshit surcharge tax that will be deducted from your tip, please!
Over $20 for a chicken sandwich, a chili dog, and two drinks. Thanks Bernanke.
The Wall Street class doesn't see a problem because they are used to paying $200 for a small plate lunch with some duck liver topping. For average people the cost of living has hit insane. Working families have to plan trips based on the cost of gas. Grocery store trips seem like shopping in Nordstrom.
What used to be considered cheap food runs $20.
If you're making $10 an hour you have to work 2.5 hours (if you include tip) to pay for...a hot dog and chicken sandwich.
That's just fucking silly.
If anything will start a civil war in this Country this is it!
We're fine on killing other people in foreign lands when we're told (perhaps the mood is changing) but don't you dare mess with the "freedom fries" on my food bill!
THIS.
Fuck with their bread or their circuses and it won't take long at all.
Can I bill the IRS for having to go to http://obamacareFEE.com to calculate my ridiculous Obamacare penalty? Since my fine is $902 maybe I'll bill them $901 so I can say I contributed to the "Shared Responsbility Payment". We no longer live in the United States. Welcome to ObamaLand suckers!
The beginning of the end of united states started in 1913.
.20 cent?what's that compared to my free blackbarry?
Stupid. If these restaurant owners think Obamacare is expensive, they need to look at the military and intelligence budget.
I think the price of the MIC has already been factored into the price.
Fuck this. Not much more of this kind of crap and the producers of this country are going to start going John Galt and head for greener pastures, just gotta figure out where. I quit needing help wiping my own ass at age 5 but it looks like the majority of our citizenry are fine with Uncle Sam doing it for them. We're too far gone to save this ship, so let it sink and save yourself and your family.