January 26, 2013

It looks like Obamacare is having some negative effects on the industry it was intended to help.

Dr. Nick Turkal, CEO of Wisconsin-based non-profit health care provider Aurora Health Care, announced earlier this month that his employer would be cutting jobs due to Obamacare, The Journal Times reports. In a letter to employees he wrote that the company would be receiving $13 million less in government reimbursements forcing it to make “position eliminations plus discontinuation of some positions in the coming weeks.”

The cuts will be small considering Aurora’s 30,000 current employees but things could get worse in the future. Already, staff has been instructed to cut costs by avoiding making color copies; physicians serving Medicare patients may receive a cut in payments.

“We don’t want people to be afraid, but things are different,” Aurora spokeswoman Myrle Croasdale told the Journal Times.

Aurora isn’t the only one in the health care industry to claim Obamacare is forcing layoffs. Orlando Health, a Florida network of community and specialty hospitals, said it would be laying off 400 employees due to new Obamacare costs, One News Now reports. Likewise, small medical device company ADM Tronics says Obamacare will mean the company will have to lay off employees for the first time in over a decade, according to Fox News.

Obamacare has had positive effects on the health care industry, as well, however. While these companies have reported increased costs, hospitals and insurance companies alike are expected to receive a large influx in payments due to the new health law, Forbes reports. As a result, investors are betting that the industry will see big profits, already driving stocks of various health care companies in the S&P 500 up 7.3 percent this year, The Washington Post reports.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/26/aurora-health-care-obamaca...