McDonalds about to drop health coverage?

McDonald’s Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul.

The move is one of the clearest indications that new rules may disrupt workers’ health plans as the law ripples through the real world.

Trade groups representing restaurants and retailers say low-wage employers might halt their coverage if the government doesn’t loosen a requirement for “mini-med” plans, which offer limited benefits to some 1.4 million Americans.

The requirement concerns the percentage of premiums that must be spent on benefits.

While many restaurants don’t offer health coverage, McDonald’s provides mini-med plans for workers at 10,500 U.S. locations, most of them franchised. A single worker can pay $14 a week for a plan that caps annual benefits at $2,000, or about $32 a week to get coverage up to $10,000 a year.

Last week, a senior McDonald’s official informed the Department of Health and Human Services that the restaurant chain‘s insurer won’t meet a 2011 requirement to spend at least 80% to 85% of its premium revenue on medical care.

McDonald’s and trade groups say the percentage, called a medical loss ratio, is unrealistic for mini-med plans because of high administrative costs owing to frequent worker turnover, combined with relatively low spending on claims. (Source: WSJ)

Another PREDICTED consequence of ObamaCare.  One that was ignored by the Democrats in Washington D.C.

As RedState points out:

McDonald’s is a huge corporation with a lot of clout. But there are many small businesses equally affected by the same regulations who will not have the clout of a McDonald’s. How many of them will ultimately go out of business because of Obamacare?

Congressman Kagen voted for ObamaCare.  With companies going out of business or dropping health coverage because of ObamaCare, voters and the local media should be asking Congressman Kagen how this is beneficial to Wisconsin businesses and workers.

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Missouri answers question of when life begins

At what point do we become human?

Missouri lawmakers have declared their answer. By withholding both his signature and his veto, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon signaled that he agreed and recently allowed the legislative answer to become state law.

“The life of each human being begins at conception,” according to Senate Bill 793, which adds new regulations to the state’s 24-hour informed consent law for abortions. “Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.”

The bill makes Missouri the second state to adopt such language after a similar provision became law in South Dakota in 2005, and then survived a legal challenge in federal court in 2008.

Abortion providers will be required to include the language from the bill “prominently” on brochures that will be required for every woman seeking the procedure — even if they don’t happen to believe the Christian theology the words represent.

“Those are not sentiments that all the world’s religions, or all the people in the state, believe in,” said Paula Gianino, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri.

But supporters of the new law say they see no conflict between religion and the law’s definition of life.

State Sen. Jim Lembke, a Republican and one of the bill’s sponsors, said the language on the new brochures “is not a religious statement. It’s a scientific statement.” (Source: Reporter Online)

Great news.  Disappointing news as well when you consider that state law is apparently needed to answer the question of when life begins.  Be sure to go to the source for the entire article.

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The Last Best Hope

If they don’t hear us NOW, they will hear WE THE PEOPLE this November.

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Ken Kratz to resign as Calumet Co. DA

It’s about time.

The lawyer representing embattled Calumet County District Attorney Kenneth R. Kratz said Monday that Kratz will resign.

Kratz’s lawyer, Robert Craanen, made the statement in the Calumet County Courthouse during a hearing to determine a schedule for removal proceedings against Kratz.

Kratz has been under intense pressure to step down since it was revealed Sept. 15 that he sent sexually suggestive text messages to a domestic violence victim while he was prosecuting her ex-boyfriend on domestic violence charges last year.

At least four other women have since accused Kratz of similar misconduct.

Craanen said Monday that Kratz plans on resigning by Oct. 8, which is when the removal proceedings were scheduled to begin. At the end of the proceedings, Gov. Jim Doyle would have decided whether the evidence against Kratz justified removing him from office.

Doyle must receive Kratz’s letter of resignation before the move becomes official.

Kratz was not present for Monday’s hearing. He announced last week that he was taking an indefinite medical leave of absence, and Craanen has said Kratz is enrolled in therapy for a “non-physical illness.”

Kratz, who has been Calumet County’s district attorney since 1992, sent 30 text messages over three days last fall to Stephanie L. Van Groll while he was prosecuting her ex-boyfriend.

Perhaps it was this, not the additional accusations that came to light, that caused Kratz to change his mind.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation reviewed the case but did not discipline Kratz, drawing criticism last week from Doyle, Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen, state legislators and victims’ advocates.

The office reversed course Friday, announcing it would reopen its investigation into Kratz in light of similar accusations that have surfaced in the last two weeks. (Source: JSOnline)

Notice how it was a statement made by the attorney.  Come on Ken, why aren’t you making the statement that you will resign by Oct. 8?

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