Not an encouraging start
The precursors to Obamacare going into full effect next year haven’t been encouraging. Medical device manufacturer Stryker Corporation (NYSE:SYK) cut its workforce by 5% in direct response to the added costs of the medical device excise tax while the CEO of NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA), Alexis Lukianov, threatened to move his research and development operations overseas because of the device tax last June. Similarly Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT), the largest medical device maker in the world, has been investing heavily in China in order to take advantage of cheap labor and a more favorable tax situation.
The CEO of insurer Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET), Mark Bertolini, had this to say about the potential for premium price hikes in anticipation of the full implementation of Obamacare in 2014: “We’ve all done the math, we’ve shared it with regulators, we’ve shared it with all the people in Washington that need to see it, and I think it’s a big concern.”
That didn’t stop Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET) from hiking premiums by as much as 21% in some states last year in anticipation of pricing caps soon to be put in place by Obamacare.
The negative effects, though, extend far beyond the medical sector. Papa John’s Int’l, Inc. (NASDAQ:PZZA) CEO John Schnatter heavily criticized the costs associated with Obamacare last year, riling up consumers after parceling out its precise costs to the company at $0.11 to $0.14 per pizza.
Don’t get me wrong — there are some very clear positives derived from health-care reform, including some 32 million people that were previously uninsured gaining insurance under Obamacare. That’s progress, as is the fact the quality of coverage should improve in some cases from a bare-bones policy to something more encompassing.
Still, this report from the SOA wasn’t an encouraging read and could put the President and the entire health care industry on the defensive until proven otherwise.
What’s your take on Obamacare? Is this good for America, a necessary evil, or a failure from the get-go? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
The article Is Obamacare About to Skyrocket Your Health Care Costs? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool owns shares of Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT) and Papa John’s.
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