I know in the case of Darden, they currently offer all of their employees mini plans. That is, they offer insurance that covers minor issues. Doctors visits, flu shots, prescriptions... most of the day to day stuff that a majority of people deal with on a regular basis. Under Obamacare, these mini plans do not count, and as such, Darden is now faced with giving all of their employees full coverage which will be hundreds of millions of dollars to insure all of their employees. The way around this is to make all of your employees part time. Darden is going to drop all of their employees to part time status and limit them to 28 hours a week. So now, not only do the employees lose their basic insurance, they lose money due to reduced hours.