McDonald’s

Obamacare May Force McDonald’s to Drop Health Coverage for Employees

by Hans Bader on October 1, 2010

in Economy, Health and Illness, Healthcare, Insurance, Nanny State, Personal Liberty, Politics as Usual, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

Michelle Malkin points out that “McDonald’s has notified the feds that it may be forced to drop health insurance for some 30,000 workers due to the Obamacare mandate.”

A large number of employers may eventually eliminate health coverage due to Obamacare. As The Wall Street Journal notes:

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. . .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.

It’s not just limited-benefit plans that are disappearing. Excellent health plans that patients prize most are disappearing too.  Earlier, 22,000 seniors lost their health care plan due to Obamacare. Meanwhile, state regulators are approving premium increases due to the increased costs resulting from Obamacare.

By the way, I’m tired of mindless McDonald’s bashing. The food at McDonald’s is no more fattening than at many restaurants which charge much higher prices.  (A Big Mac is healthier than quiche lorraine.)  I lost 10 pounds while working at McDonald’s and eating mostly McDonald’s food (a man in Richmond lost 86 pounds). Yet left-wing busybodies are now using discriminatory zoning rules to block the opening of new McDonald’s franchises in places like Los Angeles, and are calling for taxes on fast food to control what people eat, as part of “healthcare reform.”

“Homer doughnut. Bacon doughnut. Paradise.”

by Ivan Osorio on January 11, 2010 · 1 comment

in Culture, Health and Illness, Nanny State, Personal Liberty, Zeitgeist

Thus says Morgan Spurlock in The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special.

When I first heard that Spurlock, whose most renowned contribution to film is a leftish anti-fast food screed, was tasked by Fox to make a special documentary for the Simpsons’ 20th anniversary, I was mildly irritated by the choice. I say mildly, because I figured that he wouldn’t do things much differently than anybody else with that job. Indeed, Spurlock kept the documentary mostly focused on the Simpsons, rather than himself — but not entirely.

The show’s (thankfully light) political content fell embarrassingly flat. First, Spurlock interviews Catholic League head Bill Donohue about an episode he claimed to have found objectionable. Donohue merely restated his time-worn claim to a right to not be offended in the media; Spurlock couldn’t have made him look worse if he tried.

Spurlock then takes a swipe at the nuclear energy industry, by comparing people who work in it to Homer and his bumbling colleagues. This would be scurrilous if it weren’t so lame.  The industry representatives he talked to merely said that, no, things like three-headed fish don’t really occur and that people like Homer would never be hired. None seemed to take umbrage at the show. To Spurlock, this is somehow damning.

But those are minor quibbles; the special is well done and entertaining for any Simpsons fan. And as a bonus, we get to see anti-McDonald’s food puritan Morgan Spurlock stuff his face with two doughnuts at once, at Portland’s Voodoo Doughnuts. I wonder if he, or any of his fans, got the irony of the moment.

The Simpsons special can be viewed here. (The Voodoo Doughnuts segment is at 14:14.)

For more on Morgan Spurlock’s attack on the fast food industry, see here.

For more on Voodoo Doughnuts, see the mini-documentary below, by my friend Shayne Hansen.

Big Macs a Health Food? Man Eats 23,000 Big Macs

by Hans Bader on September 11, 2008

in Economy, Legal, Personal Liberty, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Sanctimony

Don Gorske, a Wisconsin corrections officer, is in “good shape” after eating 23,000 Big Macs.  He has, however, cut down on his consumption of french fries, which have a higher fat ratio than hamburgers.  I lost ten pounds while working at McDonald’s, and eating lots of Big Macs and Quarter Pounders.  A Richmond man lost 86 pounds.  Soso Whaley also lost weight on a McDonalds’ diet.  McDonald’s food is no fattier than many more expensive restaurants’.   But that hasn’t stopped trial lawyers from suing McDonalds and blaming it for their clients being fat.  Nor has it stopped the Los Angeles City Council from practicing “Food Apartheid,” by banning new fast food joints in predominantly-minority South-Central L.A.  The City cites the putative health care costs of obesity.  But the net effect of banning fast-food restaurants may be to increase obesity by increasing purchases on fatty and sugary packaged-foods from convenience stores.

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