Medical giant Stryker cuts 1,170 jobs, citing ObamaCare

[yeswecanandwedid]

This crap is all over my Facebook today for some reason...


Medical supply giant Stryker is the latest company to announce job cuts in anticipation of coming costs associated with ObamaCare, even though the man who inherited a fortune from the company's founder is a fan.
The company will cut 1,170 jobs, or five percent of its worldwide workforce, despite the fact that the founder's grandson was one of the largest contributors to President Obama’s re-election campaign. Medical tech scion Jon Stryker, whose net worth is currently estimated at $1.2 billion, contributed $2 million to the Priorities USA Action super PAC and has given $66,000 in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party. Stryker does not run the company.
A "medical device excise tax" included in the mandate imposes a 2.3 percent levy on medical device manufacturers and suppliers, which critics say will raise prices on everything from pacemakers to prosthetics to stents. Companies will be required to pay the tax regardless if they have a profit or loss for the year. The tax is estimated to cost the medical device industry $20 billion.
House Republicans tried to have the tax repealed, drafting a bill called the Protect Medical Innovation Act, but the Democrat-controlled Senate has blocked the measure.
“The targeted reductions and other restructuring activities are being initiated to provide efficiencies and realign resources in advance of the new Medical Device Excise Tax scheduled to begin in 2013, as well as to allow for continued investment in strategic areas and drive growth despite the ongoing challenging economic environment and market slowdown in elective procedures,” Stryker spokeswoman Yin Becker told FoxNews.com. “The reductions and restructuring activities are expected to be substantially complete by the end of 2012.”
Executives for Stryker have placed the blame squarely on the coming tax ever since it gained more steam in Washington.
"Here we are, one of the greatest industries in the country, and we're staring down on Jan. 1, 2013 and the addition of a 2.3 percent excise tax, while meanwhile on the other side all the discussion in Washington is about creating jobs," Stryker President and CEO Stephen McMillian said during a national conference of medical device manufacturers in Washington, D.C. last September.
Positions within the company were eliminated altogether after the announcement and have since contracted out many of their current roster of employees to keep costs down, an employee with Stryker, who spoke to FoxNews.com under the condition of anonymity, said.
“They really trimmed the fat with the last layoffs in 2009 and the year after which is probably why we are finally on budget for the first time since 1999,” the employee added.
Jon Stryker has been active in politics before the recent election; he contributing millions to help Democratic candidates in his home state of Michigan. He also has given nearly $250 million of his personal wealth to groups supporting gay rights and the conservation of apes, which led to a newly found species being named after him. In 2010, the discovered Myanmar Snub-nosed monkey was named Rhinopithecus strykeri by the research teams that were funded by Stryker’s Arcus Foundation.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/16/medical-supply-giant-stryker-corp-makes-pre-emptive-strike-against-pending/#ixzz2CUpY2ViB

[AnnaLee]

1. Maybe the President should announce major government grants and loans.

For real Americans to start businesses to replace all of those that move to Mars with the disappointed secessionists.

[Scuba]

5. +1

[Dem2TheCore]

2. When Romneycare was introduced in Mass.,

did every big Mass. company freak out, raise their prices, and lay people off?

This is political theater at its worst.

[dsc]

8. No

but that was because the US paid for most of it.

[GeorgeGist]

3. Suicide is definitely the answer.

As of this writing AP has nothing relating to the headline of this story.

[global1]

4. The Medical Device Industry Is Not Looking At The Other Side Of The Coin.....

With the Affordable Care Act 30 to 40 million more people will have medical insurance that didn't before. There will be an influx of people using healthcare, healthcare facilities, pharmaceuticals and medical devices that didn't in the past because they didn't have insurance. Couple that with the aging of the baby boomers that will gradually be using more and more healthcare services, pharmaceuticals and devices - all of the healthcare industry is going to get busier and could possibly be overwhelmed. Any company that services this industry will benefit from this influx of patients.

A 2.3 percent levy on medical devices is a small price to pay for the business that will be coming their way. The thinking that this will raise prices on products - in my opinion is wrong as well. With the pool of patients getting bigger - the competition to sell product for those patients will get stiffer. Companies will vie for the extra volume of product to be sold and that will keep pricing in check.

I just think Stryker is being short-sighted on this. They are not looking at the big picture - only thinking about things as they are now and not considering how it will be come 2014 when ACA kicks into full force.

[ChazII]

6. A few of my FB acquaintances

have posted stuff like this.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

7. While the ACA is being blamed as the reason for the layoffs...

posters have stated with an increase of insured people their business will only increase
making up for the tax. Is this some sort of blackmail message being sent to the administration
regarding the end of the Bush tax cuts? Because from a business standpoint this doesn't make sense.

[SoapBox]

9. I smell bullshit...

“They really trimmed the fat with the last layoffs in 2009 and the year after which is probably why we are finally on budget for the first time since 1999,” the employee added.

So they have been getting rid of "fat" since 2009 and are now finally on budget?

Uhhh, so that is Obama's fault?

It's a FuksNews story...that alone is enough to make me suspicious. There are SO many blah, blah, blahs in that story, that simply make me think that the company was WAY bloated and needed to become business like.

And the Medical Device industry huh? You mean part that has been rotten to the core, bilking Medicare on over inflated prices on all sorts of devices, including those electric wheelchairs?

Yup, I smell Mittshit...opps, bullshit.