February « 2013 « Ales to Stouts

Okay, okay, I know. This isn’t a politics blog, but I think this new Affordable Care Act may soon change how much beer I can purchase, because this household just lost some money.

I identify as a Democrat, on normal days. Most times I’m a Moderate, or a I vote for what I believe, not what my party says type of person. I voted for Obama, and I was stoked for “Obamacare” or the “Affordable Care Act.” As some of you may know, companies are getting ready to start implementing most of these new policies in 2014. This means that they’re looking at labor costs and healthcare costs this far in advance.

My boyfriend works for a university kitchen. It’s unionized, so when he hired in he was given a quota of about 1,000 hours for the year, and told that after that he’d be laid off for a little while (maybe as little as a week) and then be rehired with a significant pay bump and be part of the union (by significant, I mean around a $4 increase). Yesterday, citing the Affordable Care Act, he bosses informed him that he still had a quota of 1,000 hours, and then after that he could be laid off for months or weeks, depending. When he does get hired back, though, he can expect to not get a pay bump or an hour increase like he was originally promised. The reason? If an employee works over 30 hours he is eligible for healthcare. While I believe this should have been the case ages ago, what his company is doing is hiring no full time employees and not increasing pay so that they don’t lose money. The unions are apparently already getting on the college for that, but, since my boyfriend isn’t a part of the union, I don’t think we’ll see any help from them.

Ryan has been living without heathcare all of his adult life. While I’m excited that he’ll qualify for free Medicaid (I believe, I’d have too look more into it), a few check-ups aren’t really going to outweigh the cost of the loss of hours and the pay increase we were really hoping for. Additionally, even if he were to go try and find another job as a cook somewhere else, there’s a high probability that they’re doing the same thing as the university kitchen.

Any thoughts on the Affordable Care Act? I found this article at the Huffington Post which explains a little what Ryan is going through.

I’m not a very good blogger. I’ve found this out about half a dozen times over the years. I could link you to a plethora of blogs I’ve started and abandoned along the way, because… well… I suck. I like to write, but then I find that no one is reading/I sound like I’m whining/ I’d rather keep a hand written journal (which I do for about four days) and then I just stop.

Oh well. I guess that’s my burden.

Things have been pretty rocky over here. Not really like terrible, no good, rotten, very bad day bad, but at least this week has been frustrating. I had to tell a friend of mine that I couldn’t go to her wedding in Utah (I live in Michigan) because I couldn’t:

a. Afford it.

— or —

b. Take the time off the job I may or may not have (I’m a temp).

I don’t think it went over well.

I also have to deal with a super Control Freak who needs to be involved with EVERYTHING at work, including infamously telling me how to use Clip Art in Microsoft Word, and that we should type out “Road” in an address instead of writing “Rd.” so that people don’t get confused…. It’s like that every day.

This week my dog also got sick on the carpet, I got pulled over twice in one day for a taillight being out, I will have worked 8 hours of overtime, I feel like I’ll never find a job that’s worth my salt, and just a few other things have gone wrong this week. As Boyfriend has been saying today, “Everything is made of farts.”

I’ll see if I can get a beer review sometime this weekend, though. I’m working Saturday, but afterwards God knows I’ m going to the bar.

Cheers!