Big Bird Loses Healthcare Under Obamacare Rules

Millions of Americans are losing their work-provided healthcare insurance plans all across the country as the costs, fees, and fines of Obamacare become clear. Now, even Big Bird of Sesame Street fame has lost his healthcare insurance thanks to the President’s take over of the healthcare system.

Some may recall that during the 2012 presidential election, the progressive media accused GOP nominee Mitt Romney of wanting to “kill Big Bird” when he came out in opposition to funding public broadcasting services like PBS and NPR. Now, only months after the election, Obamacare is about to “kill Big Bird” in Pennsylvania.

One of The Keystone State’s biggest tourist attractions is Sesame Place, a Sesame Street-themed amusement park just northeast of Philadelphia. First opened in 1980, Sesame Place employs about 1,650 people both full and part-time and brings in upwards to $75 million in economic activity to Pennsylvania’s Bucks County.

However, Sesame Place parent company SeaWorld has announced that it will cut hours for part-time employees, likely to keep them under the 30-hour threshold set down in Obama’s healthcare law. SeaWorld will also cease offering company-based healthcare plans for part-time workers.

“This law is hurting real people in my district and around the country,” Representative Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) wrote in a letter to the Obama administration.

Philly Inquirer writer Julie Zauzmer reports that SeaWorld has confirmed that it has cut part-time worker’s hours from 32 hours a week to 28. This will keep employees under the new Obamacare limit of what makes a “full-time worker.”

In his letter, Fitzpatrick enclosed a memo from SeaWorld to its employees saying that the company it contracts with for healthcare insurance, Starbridge Limited Medical, “does not comply with the minimum coverage level mandated by the Affordable Care Act.”

Therefore, SeaWorld has advised employees to seek their own healthcare solutions through the Obamacare exchanges or other private insurance.

Rep. Fitzpatrick, a signer of the House budget plan that would defund Obamacare, said, “I continue to believe it must be repealed and replaced with a sustainable solution that promotes affordable access to world-class health care for which our nation is recognized.”