Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyR
Yes, they are. But you failed to address my major point: would they be doing it regardless? You can't prove it either way. Healthcare costs companies huge $ and they stand to benefit by moving employees from full time to part time, just as they often stand to benefit from things like higher productivity and outsourcing. So again, we don't know for sure how much of a factor ACA is here. You can only speculate, and of course companies will use it as an excuse.
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I work part-time at King Soopers. The rules used to be that you qualified for benefits with 20 hours per week. The new rules (effective 2013), require people to work 32 hours to qualify for benefits (which is full-time).
No, I don't think companies would be purging employees from health insurance roles without Obamacare. As an employer, you compete for employees, by offering things such as health insurance. If there is no business incentive to offer health insurance then there is no reason to offer it.
By avoiding to offer health insurance, companies can:
1. Avoid paying the Obamacare penalty.
2. Avoid paying certain large increases in future healthcare costs created by Obamacare (pre-existing condition inclusion, over-utilization).
Employees have another option now, complete subsidization from the U.S. taxpayer, instead of from their employer. Before, that option didn't exist, so companies were forced to offer health insurance to compete for good employees. Obamacare is a complete cluster**** to the nth degree.