MODESTO -- When a severe rash sent Ryan McGee of Salida to an emergency room last month, he didn't have health insurance to help pay the bill.

"It cost $500 just to be there, and I haven't even gotten the bill from the doctor," said McGee, 25.

He wishes he had insurance, but his new minimum-wage job as a store clerk doesn't include medical benefits, and McGee hasn't bought it on his own.

That's going to change in January, when President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act will begin requiring every person in the United States to have health care insurance.

The new law, often called Obamacare, mandates that large employers offer health benefits to all their full-time employees.

That won't help McGee, however, because he works only part time.

His employer, Modesto's Boyett Petroleum, used to hire primarily full-time store clerks. But this year, it began shifting toward part-timers such as McGee to avoid the new health care law's potential costs. It's one of many calculations that businesses across the country are making.

"We're making a conscientious effort to hire part-time people," acknowledged Dale Boyett, the company's president. He said hiring part-time workers "is a cultural shift for us," but it is necessary until his company knows all the costs of providing health care to full-time employees.

The petroleum supplier employs about 70 office workers, and Boyett said "they've always had health benefits." It also has about 100 retail workers at its 12 gas stations/convenience stores, but currently it offers health benefits only to its retail managers not clerks.

Starting in January, Boyett Petroleum and other employers will have to offer health insurance to all its full-time staff members, no matter what kind of work they do. But it won't have to pay for its part-timers' insurance, thus the hiring shift.

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Health care reform looks expensive to Modesto-area workers, businesses