LA Times: Part-timers to lose pay amid health act's new math

[_cinepro]

It's not a good situation (and as I've mentioned before, this is something I'm looking at with my employees), but how can it be an unexpected one?

While the goal of having everyone insured is a noble one, if you do it by making it more expensive for employers to employ people, isn't it an economic certainty that they will do whatever they (we?) can to reduce that burden?

Many part-timers are facing a double whammy from President Obama's Affordable Care Act.

The law requires large employers offering health insurance to include part-time employees working 30 hours a week or more. But rather than provide healthcare to more workers, a growing number of employers are cutting back employee hours instead.

The result: Not only will these workers earn less money, but they'll also miss out on health insurance at work.

Consider the city of Long Beach. It is limiting most of its 1,600 part-time employees to fewer than 27 hours a week, on average. City officials say that without cutting payroll hours, new health benefits would cost up to $2 million more next year, and that extra expense would trigger layoffs and cutbacks in city services.

Part-timer Tara Sievers, 43, understands why, but she still thinks it's wrong.

"I understand there are costs to healthcare reform, but it is surely not the intent of the law for employees to lose hours," said the outreach coordinator at the El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach. "It's ridiculous the city is skirting the law."


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-p ... 8617.story

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[_Brackite]

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/2973 ... rain-wreck

[_bcspace]

It's not a good situation (and as I've mentioned before, this is something I'm looking at with my employees), but how can it be an unexpected one?

While the goal of having everyone insured is a noble one, if you do it by making it more expensive for employers to employ people, isn't it an economic certainty that they will do whatever they (we?) can to reduce that burden?

The solution was/is to set up PRA's (premium reimbursement accounts) where the employee buys their own insurance pretax and the employer does not offer insurance if it does not want to. Employers typically pay much more of the premium than employees see deducted from their check and that money could (or might not) be given to ee's as additional taxable cash.

An additional problem is coming up:

As I referred to in another post, there is an underground economy, one that often does not pay taxes. While I pay myself w-2 wages, I don't have health insurance per se, I have health sharing which is immune to regulation but is not therefore considered insurance.

The nice thing about health sharing is that I pay $375 monthly for a plan that would normally cost about $800-1200 a month under regular insurance. The reason why the premiums are so low is that we don't cover other people's lifestyle choices such as any medical conditions shown to be brought on or effected by smoking, drinking, STD's such as HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, out of wedlock pregnancies, etc.

Of course, as an example, if someone were to get HIV via an accidental prick of a needle in the hospital or at the dentist's office, it would be covered.

There are at least several million Americans participating in health sharing. However, come Jan 1, they will have to purchase regular insurance at the newly inflated prices that everyone else will have to. The best solutions to health care costs are being removed. There is a large group of people who, while they did not have insurance, were absolutely fine without it.

[_bcspace]

While the goal of having everyone insured is a noble one,

No it's not. People have lost sight of what insurance really is. What they are aiming for is the worst of all options, universal coverage.

if you do it by making it more expensive for employers to employ people, isn't it an economic certainty that they will do whatever they (we?) can to reduce that burden?

The goal of the Left with Obamacare was to force everyone onto the government plan by increasing costs and making Medicare/Medicaid more onerous. Where will all these part timers turn as their wages are reduced and they, by law, must buy insurance? The government plan and all it's subsidies who's cost will spiral out of control. I (and everyone who knows something about economics and or the health care industry) predicted this years ago when Obamacare was being created. It is now coming to pass.