Health care law brings big cost for big companies

Washington
March 26, 2010

(CNN) -- It hasn't even been a week since President Obama signed sweeping health care legislation, but several companies already have warned shareholders they expect to take a hit.

Manufacturer John Deere announced Thursday that it expected the company's expenses to be about $150 million higher than last year. That came a day after Caterpillar predicted a new cost of $100 million, and two days after AK Steel predicted a charge of $31 million.

"Having an additional cost like this is not great timing," Caterpillar spokesman Jim Dugan said.
As a deep recession spread last year, revenue for Caterpillar, the world's largest manufacturer of construction equipment, declined 37 percent from the previous year, and 19,000 workers were laid off worldwide. But in the last three months, the company has recalled 750 or so employees and projected higher sales in 2010. the rest