Obamacare as a Jobs Killer
Politics / US Politics Feb 12, 2014 - 12:07 PM GMTBy: BATR
Economic illiteracy is a hallmark of most political policies. The prime example of this principle is the idiocy out of the Obama administration that maintains that the Affordable Care Act is favorable to job seekers. The ranks of progressive euphoria reporting on the joys of Obamacare want to spin the latest Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) analysis as favorable. As these imbeciles push out their demented dreams for a neo Great Society, the facts of trade and industry need to be buried in order to institute the total welfare state.
In the face of ignoring that productive employment is a worthy and necessary goal for a healthy economy, avid Obama supporters cannot escape empirical reality. Even a flagship liberal publication like Atlantic is obliged to ask, Is Obamacare a Job-Killer After All?
"The reduction in CBO’s projections of hours worked represents a decline in the number of full-time-equivalent workers of about 2.0 million in 2017, rising to about 2.5 million in 2024. Although CBO projects that total employment (and compensation) will increase over the coming decade that increase will be smaller than it would have been in the absence of the ACA."
The 2.5 million workers that will be driven out of the workforce due to Obamacare is actually "a liberating result of the law," according The New York Times (emphasis added):
"The Congressional Budget Office estimated on Tuesday that the Affordable Care Act will reduce the number of full-time workers by 2.5 million over the next decade. That is mostly a good thing, a liberating result of the law. Of course, Republicans immediately tried to brand the findings as "devastating" and stark evidence of President Obama’s health care reform as a failure and a job killer. It is no such thing.
The report estimated that — thanks to an increase in insurance coverage under the act and the availability of subsidies to help pay the premiums — many workers who felt obliged to stay in a job that provided health benefits would now be able to leave those jobs or choose to work fewer hours than they otherwise would have. In other words, the report is about the choices workers can make when they are no longer tethered to an employer because of health benefits. The cumulative effect on the labor supply is the equivalent of 2.5 million fewer full-time workers by 2024."
In the real world, large corporations strive to cut costs and such organizations aim to reduce or forestall adding new employees whenever possible. Therefore, when the establishment press comes to the defense of Obamacare, they are actually making the argument that their own importance in their corporate enterprise is expendable.
Well before the release of this CBO report, the example of Kroger Confronts Obamacare by Reducing Employee Hours illustrates that reduced income is the byproduct for many workers."Kroger is a large grocery store chain which employs nearly 350,000 people and had sales sales of $90 billion last year. Last week, employees found out that, starting in 2013, there will be some changes for employees. These scheduling changes will be made to account for increased costs due to Obamacare. Employees who are not already considered full time will have their hours limited whereas, now, they are allowed to work as many hours as needed in the store. For many employees, this means that they will need to find a second job or another job altogether."
Factor in The New Normal: Part-Time Employment and you have a perfect storm for years of diminished economic activity. Then lump in the prerequisite of joining an Obamacare exchange and those government subsidies seem like little compensation for effectively using those high deductable schemes.
Any entrepreneur with the experience of making a payroll understands that the added costs of employing labor discourages new hiring. If the economy was expanding and growing, such additional expenses might be able to be absorbed. Sorry to say, the main street economy is faltering on several levels.
Forbes warns in Obamacare Kills 2.5 Million Jobs? That Doesn't Count Independent Contractors.The implication should be clear. As people refuse to join the exchanges, the IRS will ramp up compliance by stripping the illusion that workers are legitimate independent contractors. The result is that fewer new hires will follow."Many rules hinge on who are your employees—independent contractors aren’t covered. But that assumes that your independent contractor classification holds up. If it doesn’t and your independent contractors are recharacterized, you are back in the soup. The risk isn’t theoretical, as the IRS is active in independent contractor reclassification efforts. And more scrutiny is coming."
Finally, consider the impact of the ACA’s cuts to Medicare threaten home health care jobs. "Newly implemented administration policies, which slash home health care funding by 14 percent over the next four years, are already resulting in a downturn in job growth, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics."
As the quality of health care declines under Obamacare, the burden of financing the guaranteed profits of the major insurance companies will fall upon the few remaining full time employees. Many part timers will opt for the taxpayer supported Medicaid coverage. This situation is hardly a bright health care future, nor is it a positive incentive for a lasting recovery. An honest job will become as rare as the few remaining practicing physicians.
Source: http://www.batr.org/negotium/021214.html
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