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The Obama administration’s announcement – made public on
an obscure government blog – that they are delaying until 2015 the implementation of
Obamacare for businesses is a slap in the face to those organizations and
individuals who have faithfully supported the Affordable Care Act from day one.
percent of businesses will not be affected by Obamacare. A Small Business
Administration official told me recently that of that remaining 4 percent —
240,000 of the nation’s 6 million employers — when you subtract those that
already offer insurance to their workers and others which, due to a variety of factors
are not impacted, the figure shrinks to 10,000 companies that have to make some
decisions due to the ACA.
employers.
Yet, the Obama administration, rather than explaining the
realities to the American people, ducks for cover in the face of criticism from
business groups and, with the 2014 mid-term elections approaching, they
obviously bowed to the concerns of congressional Democrats.
We have less than 1 percent affected, maybe half of those are
confused or unsure what to do between now and Jan. 1, and the president
buckles.
The reason that those affected are so small is simple:
Obamacare only affects businesses with 50 or more full-time employees. Some 94
percent of those companies just above that threshold – 50 to 199 employees –
already offer health care coverage.
What Obama has done with this decision is to allow the right-wing conservatives
and tea party types to gloat and further the perception that ACA implementation
is a “train wreck.” While the nation is still thoroughly confused about Obamacare
(one recent poll found that about 40 percent of Americans mistakenly thought
the law had been repealed) this move by the White House expands the confusion
and contributes to the nonsensical claims that Obamacare is a government takeover.
Snyder, who continues his road trip pushing for the state Legislature to
approve the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, flailing in the political winds. Michigan
grassroots Republicans ask, Why is the governor pursuing this program when
Obama is heading in the other direction?
Some cable TV anchormen are referring to the the administration’s decision as one that
will “affect every working American.” What folly. Beyond the very limited impact on
business, it’s important to note that most Americans already have insurance
provided by their employer or the government (such as Medicare).
An estimated 2.5 percent of Americans – a portion of the uninsured –
will purchase coverage on an individual basis on the upcoming Obamacare
exchanges.
Americans have been thoroughly misled about this program?
The administration and in particular the Treasury
Department has had more than three years to adequately present a system for the
business community to digest what Obamacare is all about. The implementation
plan, we are told, is still not quite ready.
What have these guys been doing?
businesses would try to manipulate the new system by putting their entire
workforce on 30 hours per week to avoid the intended compliance. They knew that
employers just below the 50-worker level would perversely be incentivized not
to hire more workers. They knew that some companies would simply dodge the
whole business of providing their employees with health care by choosing the
Obamacare option of paying a fine.
And here is where the perception put forward by certain
business organization lobbyists that the ACA is anti-business falls apart.
As Ezra Klein of The Washington Post points out, the average
employer-sponsored insurance plan costs around $16,000. Compared to that, a $2,000-$3,000 penalty is a
pittance. For all sorts of reasons, employers don’t seem to want to drop
coverage, but if they did, this wouldn’t stop them.
White House just swapped one political headache for another…By delaying a
requirement that all ‘large’ employers provide health insurance, the Obama
administration heads off the unseemly spectacle of companies vowing to cut jobs
or workers’ hours to avoid the costly mandate. But the late Tuesday action is
not a free pass: It contributes to critics’ claims that the White House does
not have the ability to launch its biggest legislative accomplishment on
schedule.”
Here’s Klein’s take on all of this:
Congress away from demanding that (employers) for the bulk of their employee’s
health insurance. The employer mandate that ended up in Obamacare — like the
one that ended up in Mitt Romney’s reforms — is more of a token penalty than a
major policy. It brings in a bit of money, and boosts coverage on the margin,
but it’s really there to satisfy demands that employers don’t get a totally
free ride.
Obamacare is not smartly constructed. … That’s why I was a fan of (Democratic
Sen.) Ron Wyden and (Republican Sen.) Bob Bennet’s Healthy Americans Act, which
converted employer health-care payments to wages, and then
sent people to buy health insurance on their own.
that both keeps employers at the center of the health-insurance market and asks
nothing of them — even though that’s exactly what business wants, and what they
seem ever closer to getting.”
I fully agree with Klein that the way out of this is to end the
nation’s antiquated employer-provided insurance system in favor of full participation by all
workers in the exchanges, where they can shop for a policy that fits their
needs and their personal finances.
