Obamacare Surcharge Appearing on Restaurant Bills Across the Country

By Adan Salazar

The small business mandate doesn’t go into effect until 2015, but restaurants across the country are already passing the extra costs associated with having to offer healthcare to their employees on to consumers.
Double D’s Sourdough Pizza in Denver recently started adding a five percent charge to customer’s bills in order “to pay for half of the health care costs of all employees, both full- and part-time,” according to CBS Denver.
Double D’s owner Ted Dorr says he isn’t trying to make a political statement by subjecting patrons to the extra charge. He just wanted to be able to offer health care to his employees.
A restaurant chain in Florida also recently began adding a one percent surcharge to its customer’s bills.

According to CNN:

The Gator Group’s full-time hourly employees won’t actually receive health insurance until December. But the company said it implemented the surcharge now because of the compliance costs it’s facing ahead of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate kicking in in 2015.

A sign at the establishment noted, “The costs associated with ACA compliance could ultimately close our doors. Instead of raising prices on our products to generate the additional revenue needed to cover the costs of ACA compliance, certain Gator’s Dockside locations have implemented a 1% surcharge on all food and beverage purchases only.”
Gator’s statement echoes remarks made by Denny’s franchise owner John Metz in November 2012. Metz was in hot water after he proposed the “controversial” notion of charging customers a five percent surcharge to help share the healthcare burden.
“Although it may sound terrible that I’m doing this, it’s the only alternative. I’ve got to pass the cost on to the consumer,” Metz said at the time.
And the République restaurant in Los Angeles last month also began charging its customers an extra three percent to help stay afloat.
Under the guise of caring about people’s wellbeing, the Affordable Healthcare Act forces businesses with more than 50 employees to provide a healthcare option for their employees.
“I don’t think it should be shoved in people’s faces like this,” a frustrated Double D’s customer told CBS Denver.
Forced compliance is just one more way Obamacare is going to cost people jobs and in the process fleece the American people out of millions of dollars.
Zero Hedge notes, “The bottom line decision for businesses: fire your workers, or pass through the costs to other consumers. Many have done the former, or converted full-time workers to part-time status. Increasingly more are opting for the latter. How long until the popular outcry that this latest ‘freebie’ by the government was anything but.”