McDonald's could drop health coverage for 30k employees

[HumblePie]

Take a note here, I am not saying that I know what their costs are, nor do I claim to understand exactly where these costs come from. But, I do know that turnover has costs, and thus high turnover has higher overhead. I am not saying that it is certain that mcdonalds is telling the truth, only that their argument makes logical sense from a basic knowledge of their company. You, however, are saying that you don't know where these costs might be, therefore it must be a lie. As someone else said, you are arguing from incredulity. Unless you know a lot more about their costs, and are not telling us, you really are not presenting a good argument to refute the claim that they cannot meet 80% just because you don't understand it.

I am stating that these are managers with these plans. These are not high turn over employees. That is a bullshit claim in the first place.

I am also stating that even if the employee's are high turn over, technology is available to today to make that all moot as it should not cost them any more to keep track of an employee they are tracking for payroll purposes in the first place.

I am stating that in all likely hood the insurer is a subsidiary or sister company to McDonalds, and as such it would be even easier to track turn over.

I am stating that it shouldn't be costing them more than $7 million dollars per year on average for "administrative" costs which include tracking turn over.

Yes there is some supposition I have going on, but it's within the realms of a good educated guess and not something being pulled out of my ass. Using the facts I do know, and following a logic process I've already outlined, it is pretty easy to draw the same conclusion I have drawn. That McD's is totally whining about not being able to take candy from babes anymore.

 

[HumblePie]

These plans aren't PPOs and HMOs for managers. These plans ARE for the burger flippers. McDonalds doesn't employ 30,000 managers.

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!? Are you fucking serious. I stopped right there. You are retarded. Read the article again. It is 30,000 employees on these plans from 10,000 sites. That is an average of 3 employees per store. There are way more than 3 employees per store at any given McD's. Guess how many managers there typically are per store? I'll give you a hint. Typically there is a Store Manager, Business Manager, and Assistant Manager at the least. Wow, that's three employee's. Also we already had a poster who WORKS FOR THEM, state specifically who these plans are for.

 

[drebo]

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!? Are you fucking serious. I stopped right there. You are retarded. Read the article again. It is 30,000 employees on these plans from 10,000 sites. That is an average of 3 employees per store. There are way more than 3 employees per store at any given McD's. Guess how many managers there typically are per store? I'll give you a hint. Typically there is a Store Manager, Business Manager, and Assistant Manager at the least. Wow, that's three employee's. Also we already had a poster who WORKS FOR THEM, state specifically who these plans are for.

Answer the question:

Can the company you work for operate with a gross profit margin of 15%? Could it operate with a gross profit margin of $233 per customer?

I'm guessing "no". This is the issue here, not who the insurance is for.

The government is basically saying "you can't make more than this much money". That's a HUGE MAJOR FUCKING PROBLEM, regardless of the industry.

 

[Fern]

Can you at least pretend to read the article before you reply to it?



30k people across 10k locations means only the top 3 managers at each location get this insurance. Part time people do not get it. Even most of the full time people don't get it. A small McDonalds will have 10-20 total employees, 1 store manager, and about 5 shift managers.
Source: I worked at McDonalds before.

Part time people do NOT get HI?

Everything I read says different. Some sites (looks like it goes state-by-state) say part-timers need to work 20 hrs per week to get HI benefits. Other sires just say HI is offered to ALL employees.

Here's the NC site (saying all employees get HI benefits):
http://www.mcnorthcarolina.com/careers/benefits/06760/

I thought managers made decent money. I think they would have much better HI than the crappy mini-med plan

Fern

 

[HumblePie]

Part time people do NOT get HI?

Everything I read says different. Some sites (looks like it goes state-by-state) say part-timers need to work 20 hrs per week to get HI benefits. Other sires just say HI is offered to ALL employees.

Here's the NC site (saying all employees get HI benefits):
http://www.mcnorthcarolina.com/careers/benefits/06760/

I thought managers made pretty good money. I think they would have much better HI than the crappy mini-med plan

Fern

When I was working part time before, I couldn't get HI or other benefits. Even when I was working retail a few years back this was true. Most places are if you can't work 20+ or 32+ hours a week, you don't qualify for HI.

Also, managers can elect to get mini-meds OR go with full blown HI coverage. It's just another option for them. The ones taking the mini-meds are typically the younger assistant managers who are not making as much as the store managers and are healthy enough to need use it often.

As for the profit, yep, go look at HI models for profit in countries like Japan and France. The if you want to do a comparison to general business, most companies in fields that have heavy competition do just fine on a 3-7% profit margin depending upon the amount of competition.

As for the &7 mill in admin costs, these insurance plans are done in a vacuum. The insurance companies offer more than just mini-med plans and take in way more than $35 million a year. The technology costs aren't that high unless it is a start up cost either.

 

[Fern]

You know who else is headquartered out of Oak Brook Terrace, IL ?

McDonald's.

BCS Insurance group is owned by BCS Financial Services. The latter is closely held (stock not traded on exchange). I can't tell much beyond that.

Being in the same place may indicate it's owned by McD's, but then again maybe not. Oak Brook is next to Chicago and the 2 airports. The little town basically looks like it's not much other than a place for companies HQ's. Tons of companies are HQ'd there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_in_the_Chicago_metropolitan_area

Fern

 

[Fern]

-snip-Oh, and the articles are relevant for another reason. McDonald's is saying that the WSJ is making a false statement that they intend to drop their coverage. It's always relevant when things are being misrepresented to the public.

- wolf

Well, I've read the various "McDonald's Denies" articles.

I'm calling BS on them.

Why, because the WSJ article is based on a memo McD's sent to the fed regulators. They are McDonald's own words.

McDonald's, in a memo to federal officials, said "it would be economically prohibitive for our carrier to continue offering"

"Having to drop our current mini-med offering would represent a huge disruption to our 29,500 participants," said McDonald's memo

"It would deny our people this current benefit that positively impacts their lives and protects their health—and would leave many without an affordable, comparably designed alternative until 2014."

------------------------------

I'm saying whatever McDonald's is saying is basically irrelevent. It's not up to McD what plans are OK'd or not.

See this, it ain't looking good:

The government is waiting for the association of state insurance commissioners to draft recommendations. The head of the association's health-insurance committee, Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, said she doesn't think these types of mini-med plans deserve an exemption.

Otherwise, this strikes me as a possible slow repeal of the HC bill, but not by Congress/law, but the regulators themselves. A law with a bunch of exceptions isn't much of a law.

I'm also highly suspicious of the government granting case-by-case exceptions. That's the perfectly designed tool to reward your friends and punish your enemies.

Fern

 

[nonlnear]

BCS Insurance group is owned by BCS Financial Services. The latter is closely held (stock not traded on exchange). I can't tell much beyond that.

Being in the same place may indicate it's owned by McD's, but then again maybe not. Oak Brook is next to Chicago and the 2 airports. The little town basically looks like it's not much other a place for companies HQ's. Tons of companies are HQ'd there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_in_the_Chicago_metropolitan_area

Fern

I am currently looking for actuarial work and can tell you that there are a LOT of insurance companies in and around Chicago - probably for various regulatory reasons. If anyone is serious about this whole corporate incest innuendo line (which may or may not be legit, I don't know), a good place to start would be the board:

BCS Financial Corporation
Board of Directors

Mr. Scott Beacham
President and Chief Executive Officer
BCS Financial Corporation

Mr. Tom Bowser, BCS Vice Chairman
President and Chief Executive Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City

Mr. Patrick J. Geraghty
President and Chief Executive Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota

Mrs. Patricia Hemingway Hall
President and Chief Executive Officer
Health Care Service Corp.

Mr. Willis T. King, Jr.
Chairman
First Protective Insurance Company

Mr. Daniel J. Loepp
President and Chief Executive Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan

Mr. Steven S. Martin, BCS Chairman
President and Chief Executive Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska

Mr. William R. Milnes, Jr.
Retired President and Chief Executive Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont

Mr. Robert F. Orlich
President and Chief Executive Officer
Transatlantic Reinsurance Company

Mr. Terry D. Kellogg
President and Chief Operating Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama

Mr. James E. Purcell, Esq
President and Chief Executive Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island

Mr. Scott P. Serota
President and Chief Executive Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association

Mr. Mark L. Wagar
President
Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield

Mr. Mark White
President and Chief Executive Officer
Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield

Mr. J. Bradley Wilson
President and Chief Executive Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina

I lost interest after a couple quick searches, but I don't smell a rat here. (Not that that means there isn't one.) It really would have been exciting to find some corporate nepotism, but if it's there somebody is going to have to dig a little deeper to find it. *shrug*