In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Tennessee Governor Philip Bredesen explained how Obamacare has created a situation where the state government and many of its employees will find it mutually advantageous to the get rid of the employer-sponsored insurance program the state currently offers. As we have noted, Bredesen correctly acknowledges that it will be better for all parties if the state of Tennessee pays the fines involved with not offering an insurance program and subsequently dumps many of its employees onto the federally subsidized insurance exchange. Here’s how the Governor’s …
One of the great promises of Obamacare, you’ll recall, was that it would give folks working in small businesses better access to affordable care. “It works for small business owners,” Nancy Pelosi announced, “providing access to affordable group rates and creating a tax credit for them to help them insure their employees.” This sounded like it would be a huge help, because small firms struggle to find affordable coverage for their workers. Unfortunately, the Obamacare small-business tax credit just doesn’t get the job done, according to the National Federation …
Yesterday we saw how Obamacare is leading large employers to contemplate dropping their coverage of employees. Today we learn it will cripple businesses’ ability to create jobs for entry level workers. Thanks to Obamacare, low-skilled job seekers will find it even harder to find work. And low-income areas will find it even more difficult to attract new businesses. That’s the lesson drawn from a new analysis by White Castle, the iconic hamburger chain. Numbers crunchers there looked at how Obamacare provisions would affect the company’s bottom line. Of particular interest …
Fans of Obamacare promised it would be good for small and large employers alike. They should’ve checked with employers first. Mercer, a human resources consultancy, did just that. Its latest annual survey of businesses finds that “[38 percent] of the nation’s employers…have at least some employees for whom coverage would be considered ‘unaffordable’ under the newly enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).” Under Obamacare, these employers may get slapped with penalties for not giving these workers what the Feds decide to be an appropriate level of coverage. They …
The Department of Health and Human Services recently launched its new website, www.healthreform.gov, to serve as an informative source on what’s to come under new health care law. Unfortunately, the website provides little substance and more of the same rhetoric we have heard from the administration regarding health care reform. Americans should not be fooled: HHS will use the new website to frame the issue of health care reform in a way that is favorable to the new law, shedding no light on the crucial details Americans need to know …
At the signing of the Senate health bill today, President Barack Obama said: “In a few moments, when I sign this bill, all of the overheated rhetoric over reform will finally confront the reality of reform.” Let’s review some of the “overheated rhetoric” that is about to get tested by reality. Over the past months, the President and Congress have promised: that premiums would drop by $2500 per family; that if you like what you’ve got, you can keep it; that it would bend the cost curve down; that it …
Obamacare is still just one signature away from becoming law, but the battle over its repeal has already begun. Key to this debate will be which elements of Obamacare phase in when. Back in December after Obamacare first passed the Senate, Heritage Foundation scholar Robert Book produced the following chart (pdf) detailing how the policy is scheduled to be implemented between 2010 and 2017. Highlights from each year include: 2010: Physician Medicare payments decrease 21% effective March 1, 2010 2011: “Annual Fee” tax on health insurance, allocated according to share …
While the House reconciliation bill keeps many of the Senate provisions that will already slow economic growth, the reconciliation bill goes even farther in punishing employers who do not offer sufficient health care. These penalties will slow employment growth and given employers a disincentive to hire anyone who purchases subsidized health care. Punishing Businesses That Hire Low-Income Workers Businesses that already offer insurance can be affected by the reconciliation bill. Even if the employer does provide health insurance, if any employees qualify for, and accept, a premium subsidy on the …
While the nation’s unemployment rate continues to linger around 10%, Congress will soon return to Washington to devise a way to get a health care bill passed by both the House and Senate. As the negotiations loom, a recent paper by Heritage’s John Ligon explores the devastating effects that the employer mandate in the House health care bill would have for small business. In order to pressure more businesses into providing health care for their employees, the House bill includes an incremental payroll tax on employers that fail to do …
When does Washington consider a successful small business a problem to be dealt with? When that small business successfully competes against unionized firms. Then it needs to be tied down with expensive red tape until it is no longer so successful. Say what? Members of Congress routinely extol the praises of small businesses as the engine of job creation – especially in these difficult economic times. This is standard practice on Capitol Hill – small businesses do not have the same resources as large ones, and they often cannot afford …
