Bloomberg: AT&T to Book $1 Billion Cost on Health-Care Reform
37 replies, posted
[quote= Bloomberg]AT&T Inc. will book $1 billion in first-quarter costs related to the health-care law signed this week by President Barack Obama, the most of any U.S. company so far.
A change in the tax treatment of Medicare subsidies triggered the non-cash expense, and the company will consider changes to the benefits it offers current and retired workers, Dallas-based AT&T said today in a regulatory filing.
AT&T, the biggest U.S. phone company, joins Caterpillar Inc., AK Steel Holding Corp. and 3M Co. in recording non-cash expenses against earnings as a result of the law. Health-care costs may shave as much as $14 billion from U.S. corporate profits, according to an estimate by benefits consulting firm Towers Watson. AT&T employed about 281,000 people as of the end of January.
“Companies like AT&T, that have large employee bases, are going to have higher health-care costs and, therefore, lower earnings unless they can negotiate something or offer less to their employees,” said Chris Larsen, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. in New York, who rates AT&T shares “overweight” and doesn’t own any himself.
AT&T previously received a tax-free benefit from the government to subsidize health-care costs for retirees, who would otherwise be on a Medicare Part D plan. Under the new bill, AT&T will no longer be able to deduct that subsidy.
“As a result of this legislation, including the additional tax burden, AT&T will be evaluating prospective changes to the active and retiree health-care benefits offered by the company,” the carrier said in the filing.
3M Cost
AT&T’s announcement was followed about an hour later by 3M, the St. Paul, Minnesota-based maker of products ranging from Post-It Notes to respiratory masks. 3M said it expects a one-time expense of $85 million to $90 million after tax, or about 12 cents a share, in the first quarter because of the new law, according to a statement. 3M had about 75,000 employees as of Feb. 5.
Michael Coe, a spokesman for the carrier, declined to comment. Peter Thonis, a spokesman for Verizon Communications Inc., which also employs more than 200,000 people, declined to comment.
New York-based Verizon, the second-largest U.S. phone company, told employees in a note after the law was signed that the tax will make the subsidy less valuable to employers like Verizon and so “may have significant implications for both retirees and employers.”
AT&T rose 9 cents to $26.24 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have fallen 6.4 percent this year.
Union Contracts
AT&T employees represented by the Communications Workers of America union have health benefits locked in via contracts that don’t expire until 2012 and 2013, Candice Johnson, a spokeswoman for the union, said in an interview. About 58 percent of the carrier’s workforce is represented by the union, AT&T said in a filing.
Obama signed the health-care reform policy into law on March 23 after a year of pushing the legislation through Congress without a single Republican vote. The new law will be phased in over several years and gives tens of millions of uninsured Americans health coverage. The bill, projected to cost almost $1 trillion, also calls for new taxes on the highest earners and fees on health-care companies.
Much of the public is still unsure about the plan with four in 10 Americans in favor of it, according to a Bloomberg National Poll. Obama is planning a follow-up campaign to sell the law -- the biggest change to the health system since Medicare was enacted in 1965 -- to the public.[/quote]
[url]http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-26/at-t-to-take-1-billion-charge-on-health-care-reform-update1-.html[/url]
Well, this isn't good.
There are other companies that are also going through this as well. Companies like Caterpillar and John Deere.
[url]http://spectator.org/archives/2010/03/26/deere-in-obamas-headlights/[/url]
But free health care is for the common good!
/sarcasm
This was not a good idea. Not the way it was done, at least.
-snip-
We need better health-care in the US. It sucks as it is, this new system will probably suck worse (Worst of both types).
[QUOTE=Jenkem;20998077]But free health care is for the common good!
/sarcasm[/QUOTE]
But it is?
[QUOTE=Jenkem;20998077]But free health care is for the common good!
/sarcasm[/QUOTE]
The bill didn't even give free health care to all, the public option didn't pass.
Sweet jesus. What the hell.
[QUOTE=UncleJimmema;20998249]The bill didn't even give free health care to all, the public option didn't pass.[/QUOTE]
What did the public option entail?
Yes, I weep for lost corporate profits.
Okay, say you have a AT&T phone and they go bankrupt. Does it affect you? Hell Yes.
I was just chilling over here in the UK with my stable government-run universal health care system circa the 1940s when I noticed you yanks were having some problems with health care! I shed a tear for your pain.
naturally republicans will take this as an argument against universal healthcare, because money means more than human lives.
[QUOTE=smurfy;20999955]I was just chilling over here in the UK with my stable government-run universal health care system circa the 1940s when I noticed you yanks were having some problems with health care! I shed a tear for your pain.[/QUOTE]
Stable is a good word for a system where you have to wait 6 hours just to get looked at in the ER, I would know, i've been down that road.
Canada's is much better than your piss poor medical care.
[QUOTE=evilweazel;21000150]Stable is a good word for a system where you have to wait 6 hours just to get looked at in the ER, I would know, i've been down that road.
Canada's is much better than your piss poor medical care.[/QUOTE]
I shattered my foot and had it in a cast within around 2 hours of it happening.
cost: nothing
bam, have some more anecdotal evidence.
[QUOTE=Cloak Raider;21000171]I shattered my foot and had it in a cast within around 2 hours of it happening.
cost: nothing
bam, have some more anecdotal evidence.[/QUOTE]
I had a bone poking through my leg and I had to wait 5.
uh....
[QUOTE=evilweazel;21000199]I had a bone poking through my leg and I had to wait 5.
uh....[/QUOTE]
so naturally the entire UK system is crap right?
[QUOTE=Zambies!;20999858]Okay, say you have a AT&T phone and they go bankrupt. Does it affect you? Hell Yes.[/QUOTE]
Please, AT&T isn't going anywhere because of this.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;21000713]Please, AT&T isn't going anywhere because of this.[/QUOTE]
They might not, but their retirees' prescription coverage is.
[QUOTE=evilweazel;21000150]Stable is a good word for a system where you have to wait 6 hours just to get looked at in the ER, I would know, i've been down that road.
Canada's is much better than your piss poor medical care.[/QUOTE]
Clearly you don't know anything about our health care system or you listened to that conservative cunt who came over to America from the UK and was paid to spout bullshit about our health system.
[QUOTE=evilweazel;21000199]I had a bone poking through my leg and I had to wait 5.
uh....[/QUOTE]
I was once punched by a policeman therefor all policemen are bastards.
[QUOTE=evilweazel;21000199]I had a bone poking through my leg and I had to wait 5.
uh....[/QUOTE]
uh.... you are a big giant liar
if you had "a bone poking through your leg" and you'd have to wait 5 hours, you'd likely pass-out cold from shock.
Unless you're completely exaggerating in which case, 5 hours is utterly nothing.
[QUOTE=thisispain;21009561]uh.... you are a big giant liar
if you had "a bone poking through your leg" and you'd have to wait 5 hours, you'd likely pass-out cold from shock.
Unless you're completely exaggerating in which case, 5 hours is utterly nothing.[/QUOTE]
We went over this when someone said their Canadian friend had to wait three months with a broken arm
it was concluded that people bullshit to make the American system look less shitty than it really is
The legality of leaving someone outside with a bone poking out of skin, and not helping someone with a broken arm is questionable.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;21009600]We went over this when someone said their Canadian friend had to wait three months with a broken arm[/QUOTE]
except bones heal within three months
[QUOTE=thisispain;21009630]except bones heal within three months[/QUOTE]
not always correctly
[QUOTE=Gummylamb;21009625]The legality of leaving someone outside with a bone poking out of skin, and not helping someone with a broken arm is questionable.[/QUOTE]
it's a bunch of bullshit
what isn't bullshit is the childeren i see coming into our hospital that have bad injuries and then have to leave to some shitty free clinic miles away because they don't have insurance
[editline]12:48AM[/editline]
[QUOTE=Gummylamb;21009638]not always correctly[/QUOTE]
that's not the point
no doctor is going to make you wait for three months if you have something broken
[QUOTE=thisispain;21009645]it's a bunch of bullshit
what isn't bullshit is the childeren i see coming into our hospital that have bad injuries and then have to leave to some shitty free clinic miles away because they don't have insurance
[editline]12:48AM[/editline]
that's not the point
no doctor is going to make you wait for three months if you have something broken[/QUOTE]
Except for apparently overbooked doctors
[QUOTE=Gummylamb;21009659]Except for apparently overbooked doctors[/QUOTE]
Depends on your region.
[QUOTE=thisispain;21009630]except bones heal within three months[/QUOTE]
Which is why I said that guy was bullshitting. A broken arm can be limb-threatening if not treated properly.
[editline]03:56AM[/editline]
[QUOTE=Gummylamb;21009659]Except for apparently overbooked doctors[/QUOTE]
Maybe you live in a third-world country or something, but if you break your arm in Canada and have no doctors available in your area they'll fucking fly you somewhere that does. Where I live they don't have enough surgeons for stuff so there's a good chance you'll get to take a free plane ride
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.