Obamacare supporters are shocked that its opponents’ predictions of job destruction are coming true
One interesting thing about Obamacare is that even though it became law in March 2010, its main provisions were written so as not to take effect until after the 2012 Presidential election. This was no accident.
Long before Obamacare was passed, its opponents were predicting that it would reduce employment, and that this would be especially harmful to low wage workers. For example, in September 2009, the Heritage Foundation wrote:
“Mandates Kill Jobs and Lower Wages: The result of such a tax penalty is lost jobs and lower wages, especially among low-income workers. Businesses are forced to make up lost revenue or pass these costs onto consumers. Either way, the cost is covered by the American worker.”
Anyone who understands Obamacare must come to this conclusion, because Obamacare forces employers to choose from amongst these four options:
1) Provide all employees with insurance that meets certain requirements
2) Pay a substantial fine to the government
3) Reduce the number of full time employees to less than 50
4) Reduce employees’ hours to less than 30
Long before it was passed, anyone who understood Obamacare knew that it forced employers to choose one of those four options.
However, the supporters of Obamacare only talked about the first two options.
Meanwhile, in the real world, after Obama’s reelection, some of the bigger effects of Obamacare began to take effect.
In December 2012, USA Today reported:
“Many businesses plan to bring on more part-time workers next year, trim the hours of full-time employees or curtail hiring because of the new health care law, human resource firms say.”
“It will have a negative impact on job creation’ in 2013, says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.”
“Under the Affordable Care Act, businesses that employ at least 50 full-time workers — or the equivalent, including part-time workers — must offer health insurance to staffers who work at least 30 hours a week. Employers that don’t provide coverage must pay a $2,000-per-worker penalty, excluding the first 30 employees.”
“The so-called employer mandate to offer health coverage doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2014. But to determine whether employees work enough hours on average to receive benefits, employers must track their schedules for three to 12 months prior to 2014 — meaning many are restructuring payrolls now or will do so early next year.”
“The health care law will particularly affect companies with 40 to 45 workers that plan to expand and hire. Many are holding off so they don’t cross the 50-employee threshold, says Christine Ippolito, principal at Compass Workforce Solutions, a human resource consulting firm in Melville, N.Y.”
“Ernie Canadeo, president of EGC Group, a Melville-based advertising and marketing agency with 45 employees, planned to add 10 next year but now says he may add fewer so he’s not subject to the mandate.”
“Others already over the 50-employee threshold plan to add more part-time workers or cut the hours of full-timers, says Rob Wilson, head of Employco, a human resource outsourcing firm. Many, he says, will hire more temporary workers, whom they won’t have to cover.”
“Thirty-one percent of franchisees surveyed recently by the International Franchise Association said they plan to pare staff to get under the 50-employee threshold.”
That’s exactly what the critics of Obamacare had predicted would happen.
And here are some more examples: in response to the employer mandate of Obamacare, some restaurants have announced plans to switch some of their employees from full time to part time, including Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Wendy’s. Some colleges have also announced that, in response to Obamacare, they are reducing the number of hours for their adjunct professors.
Notice that all of the workers who are being affected by this are ones in relatively low paying jobs. There’s a reason for that. A lawyer, engineer, or architect earning $100,000 a year is already getting good health insurance, so Obamacare won’t have much, if any, effect on them. Their employer may have to tinker a little with the policy, adjust the benefits, etc. But as a percentage of the employee’s total cost of compensation (i.e., salary plus all benefits), any changes will be negligible.
By comparison, for low wage workers, the cost of complying with Obamacare, as a percentage of the total cost of compensation, will be quite high. This is precisely why those who are having their hours reduced by Obamacare are people employed in low wage jobs.
Thus, Obamacare very disproportionately hurts the employment situation for low wage workers. Considering how much liberals are always claiming to care about the poor, I find this to be quite ironic.
Nearly three years after Obamacare was passed, (and just a little bit after Obama’s reelection), its supporters finally began to admit that its opponents’ prediction of reduced unemployment was coming true.
For some really hilarious displays of shock and outrage by supporters of Obamacare at how it’s harming low wage workers, check out these threads at Democratic Underground: one, two, three, four, and five. Of course, all of those threads were started after Obama’s reelection.
My favorite comment from all of those threads is this one from thread one:
“Why didn’t Obamacare address this? No one could have predicted…”
Obamacare didn’t address this???
Wrong!
Obamacare caused this!
No one could have predicted this???
Uh, no – that’s not true either.
Anyone who is actually familiar with what was in the Obamacare bill could have predicted this.
The only people who didn’t predict this are the ones who are blindly loyal to Obama and his policies.
That’s why the opponents of Obamacare were aware of this before it was even passed, while its supporters didn’t become aware of it until after Obama’s reelection.
Well, you Democrats elected this President – twice. You supported his health care reform. You own this issue. So if you want to blame anyone for these low wage workers getting their hours cut as a result of Obamacare, look in the mirror, and that’s whom you should blame.
And oh yeah – another thing – the next time you go supporting a government proposal, I suggest that you actually learn what is in the proposal before you support it.
Here is video footage on Nancy Pelosi saying, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”