Obamacare’s Biggest Impact

What is Obamacare’s biggest impact?

Frequently asked question

Will Obamcare's greatest  impact, 

• Be on seniors , whose benefits will be cut to finance Obamacare and assure its fiscal sustainability?

·         Be  on the young and healthy, who will be forced to pay higher premiums to pay for comprehensive government-approved plans for services they do not feel the need?

·         Be  on physicians, who will take pay cuts and be compelled to give up their independence and to invest in electronic health records in names of “efficiency” and “care coordination?”

·         Be on the uninsured and the underinsured who will receive government subsidies and greater access to care?

 

• Be on the middle class who will, on the average, be paying higher premiums for individual and small group and employer health plans?

·         Be on the nation’s businesses who will now have to cover full-time employees or pay the federal piper to the tune of $2000 to $3000 per worker?

It may be none of these.  It may be the nation’s  low paid retail and fast-food and union workers.  They may asked to forego full-time employment with benefits for part-time employment without benefits.  This hit will make it difficult to make ends meet and support either themselves or their families.

Employers across the land are reducing employee hours to 29 hours a week to avoid health law penalties,  The unions are particularly upset.   Joseph Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, says the law will have a “tremendous impact as workers have their hours reduced and their incomes reduced.”

As Grace Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, observes in an August 27 Forbes article entited “It’s a Fact, Not Anecdote, That ObamaCare Is Turning Us into a Part-Time Nation.”

“ Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that the ratio of full-time jobs has completely flipped this year from historic trends. Last year, six full-time jobs were created for every one part-time job.  This year, one only full-time job is being created for every new part-time job.”

That stark  fact is why the Obama administration delayed the employer mandate for a year.  It was too obvious to ignore.   It did not want the employer mandate to negatively  impact (there’s that word again) the outcome of the November 4, 2014 mid-term elections.

The impact of Obamacare has not gone unnoticed by the nation’s businesses,  large and small.  Delta Airlines and UPS and other large business have responded by limiting or eliminating the eligibility of spouses. In the small business sector, the law is resulting in layoffs, fewer hours, and reduced hiring. Obamacare is increasing employee costs,  reducing the desire to provide coverage, and cutting the incentive  to grow. The motivation will be to drop coverage, reduce full-time to part-time work, and shift employees to exchanges where workers may qualify for federal subsidies.

Welcome to the new normal – part-time rather than full-time work, government benefits rather than employer benefits,  a tepid rather than a robust  economic recovery.

Tweet:  Obamacare’s biggest, most profound, most lasting impact may the great shift from full-time to part-time work to avoid Obamacare penalties.