Corporations brace for health law gains and losses

Two corporations offer very different views of how changes resulting from the health overhaul will impact their bottom lines.

Reuters: Teva CEO Sees Benefit From Obama Health Reforms
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world's largest generics drugmaker, said it stands to benefit from the Obama administration's health care reform and other plans aimed at getting cheaper medicines to the U.S. market. "The health care reform and biologics reform are going in the right direction from Teva's perspective," Teva Chief Executive Shlomo Yanai told Reuters on Tuesday after a ceremony to inaugurate the company's new distribution center (Scheer, 3/1).

Star Tribune: Health Care Penalty: A Cheaper Choice?
Health care reform presents hair care giant Regis Corp. with a dilemma. The Edina-based company, which operates Regis Salons, Supercuts and MasterCuts among others, estimates it could cost $70 million to $90 million to provide health care coverage for roughly 32,000 workers that would be eligible in 2014, when the new law's corporate mandates kick in. If Regis dropped coverage and let workers purchase insurance on their own, the penalty could cost half that — $40 million. "We'll have to balance," Regis President Randy Pearce said. "It may be cheaper for us to pay the penalty and pay into the government pool than to pay into the plan that the government wants us to." Regis is one of the few companies talking publicly at this point about an issue that many will have to confront (Crosby, 3/2).