Diners Now Paying Surcharge For Obamacare
In a snapshot tweeted by Executive Editor of CNN Money, Chris Peacock, indicates an extra 1 percent surcharge added to a lunch bill. Deemed “ACA” and listed below the usual tax, the additional charge for the Affordable Care Act helps cover the restaurant’s employees’ health insurance.
Now on your restaurant bill: Obamacare fee http://t.co/T2j0hZByWE pic.twitter.com/19ziKjsu2B
— Chris Peacock (@peacockc) February 27, 2014
The company employs 500 people, with half of those being full-time workers. At the moment, only the management receives health benefits. Under the new mandate, the restaurant will have to offer health insurance to all its full-time employees. The restaurant hopes the 1 percent charge added to diners’ meals will bring in $160,000 of the $500,000 needed a year to support health insurance for full-time employees.
So far, the Florida chain called Gator’s Dockside is not trying to hide the added fee. As CNN Money reported, the restaurant where Peacock noted the ACA surcharge displayed this sign: “The costs associated with ACA compliance could ultimately close our doors. Instead of raising prices prices on our products…to cover the costs of ACA compliance, certain Gator’s Dockside locations have implemented a 1% surcharge on all food and beverage purchases only.”
Whether Gator’s Dockside’s practice sparks a trend wherein customer’s help pay restaurants’ health insurance, there are at least some who have already, by dining, helped fund Obamacare.
