MODESTO -- When a severe rash sent Ryan McGee of Salida to an emergency room last month, he didn't have health insurance to help pay the bill. <\/p>\n
\"It cost $500 just to be there, and I haven't even gotten the bill from the doctor,\" said McGee, 25. <\/p>\n
He wishes he had insurance, but his new minimum-wage job as a store clerk doesn't include medical benefits, and McGee hasn't bought it on his own. <\/p>\n
That's going to change in January, when President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act will begin requiring every person in the United States to have health care insurance. <\/p>\n
The new law, often called Obamacare, mandates that large employers offer health benefits to all their full-time employees. <\/p>\n
That won't help McGee, however, because he works only part time. <\/p>\n
His employer, Modesto's Boyett Petroleum, used to hire primarily full-time store clerks. But this year, it began shifting toward part-timers such as McGee to avoid the new health care law's potential costs. It's one of many calculations that businesses across the country are making. <\/p>\n
\"We're making a conscientious effort to hire part-time people,\" acknowledged Dale Boyett, the company's president. He said hiring part-time workers \"is a cultural shift for us,\" but it is necessary until his company knows all the costs of providing health care to full-time employees. <\/p>\n
The petroleum supplier employs about 70 office workers, and Boyett said \"they've always had health benefits.\" It also has about 100 retail workers at its 12 gas stations\/convenience stores, but currently it offers health benefits only to its retail managers not clerks. <\/p>\n
Starting in January, Boyett Petroleum and other employers will have to offer health insurance to all its full-time staff members, no matter what kind of work they do. But it won't have to pay for its part-timers' insurance, thus the hiring shift. <\/p>\n
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Health care reform looks expensive to Modesto-area workers, businesses<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MODESTO -- When a severe rash sent Ryan McGee of Salida to an emergency room last month, he didn't have health insurance to help pay the bill. Continue reading