The new health care law could soon drive up the price of Papa John’s pizza.
John Schnatter, an Indiana native and CEO of the Kentucky-based pizza chain, told investors that the cost of providing health insurance for all of the company’s uninsured, full-time employees comes out to about 14 cents on a large pizza.
“We’re not supportive of Obamacare, like most businesses in our industry,” Schnatter said on a conference call with shareholders last week, as reported by Politico. “If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders’ best interests.”
The pizza chain’s Facebook page was soon littered with outraged pizza lovers proclaiming they would be “happy” to pay an extra 11 to 14 cents so Papa John’s employees could have health insurance, ABC News reported.
The company sought to clarify Schattner’s comments on Wednesday, telling ABC News in a statement that Schnatter’s remarks were in direct response to a question about the costs of complying with President Barack Obama’s health care law.
“We certainly understand the importance of health care to our customers, our employees, small business owners and their employees,” the company said.
But ABC News found that despite the pizza price increase, many of Papa John’s employees may still go without employer-provided health insurance after the law takes effect in 2014.
Large businesses, those with more than 50 employees, are the only ones on the hook for providing health insurance under the health reform law.
While Papa John’s as a whole employs 16,500 people, 80 percent of the company’s restaurants are independently owned franchises. As long as a franchise owner does not employ more than 50 people, he or she does not have to pay for employee health insurance.
The Affordable Care Act only requires employers to offer health insurance to full-time employees, almost 90 percent of whom at large businesses like Papa John’s corporate offices are already covered, according to a Treasury Department official.
via Papa John’s CEO: Health Care Law Will Up Pizza Price – Indiana News Story – WRTV Indianapolis.