Today the U.S. Supreme Court released its much awaited ruling on the 2010 health care law. Unfortunately, the court’s decision
leaves in place a costly and unworkable health care scheme that continues to hurt families, workers, and job creators.
Employers play a central role in the nation’s health care system.
- According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 58 percent of workers have health insurance through their employer.
- More than 160 million American’s receive health care through an employer-sponsored insurance plan.
- The voluntary employer-provided insurance system has expanded health care access to millions of Americans.
However, the 2010 law created a one-size-fits-all health care system that imposes numerous mandates, regulations, and tax hikes on America’s job creators. Additionally, the law failed to address the number one health care concern of families and employers: costs.
Due to the fatal flaws of the president’s health care law:
Employers face job destroying mandates and tax hikes
- For the first time in our nation’s history, employers with 50 or more workers are required to provide government-approved health insurance or pay a significant penalty per employee (except on the first 30 employees).
- Remarkably, the Obama administration has failed to decide what government-approved health insurance will look like, forcing employers to plan their future expenses with even greater uncertainty.
- The health care law imposes an excise tax on most types of medical devices, a punitive tax that will hurt workers in the medical device industry and undermine critical research and development that can help improve the quality of care.
- ObamaCare also levies a 40 percent excise tax on health care plans that exceed arbitrary premium limits set by Washington Democrats. As a result, the Joint Committee on Taxation predicts certain employers will have to reduce benefits.
Costs continue to rise at an unsustainable rate
- Despite President Obama’s promise to lower health care premiums for the average family by $2,500, his law makes health care costs worse. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports the price of an employer-sponsored family plan increased by 9 percent in 2011 – one year after ObamaCare became law.
- Employers already contribute on average nearly $11,000 toward each employee’s family health insurance plan. However, an annual report on trends in health care projects employer costs will increase by 8.5 percent this year as well.
- Small business owners recognize that more government control of health care will not lower costs. According to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business, almost 65 percent of small businesses surveyed do not believe ObamaCare will lower costs.
- As costs continue to rise, employers will be forced to make difficult choices. Those choices include dropping coverage, cutting back work hours, and lowering wages.
Millions of Americans risk of losing their existing coverage
- Despite the president’s repeated promise that “if you like the coverage you have, you can keep it,” the administration admitted in 2010 that millions of Americans will experience “significant changes” to their health care plan.
- A vast majority of Fortune 100 companies could save a total $422 billion over the next decade by simply dropping coverage and paying the penalty under ObamaCare, according to those companies responding to a recent survey by the House Committee on Ways and Means.
- Another survey of employers published in the McKinsey Quarterly found that 30 percent of employers will “definitely” or “probably” stop offering coverage after 2014, once ObamaCare’s employer mandate goes into effect.
- An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revealed that, under the worst case scenario, as many as 20 million Americans could lose their employer-provided health insurance as a result of the president’s health care law.
Workers have fewer job opportunities
- The director of CBO estimated in 2011 that employers will create 800,000 fewer jobs by 2021 as a result of the law’s punitive policies.
- According to the National Retail Federation, the employer mandate is “affecting expansion, franchising, and hiring decisions today.” In fact, a Gallup poll revealed that 48 percent of business owners cite the potential cost of health care as a reason why they are not hiring additional workers.
- According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, the law penalizes employers for raising wages or hiring new workers, creating a perverse incentive for employers to restrict the size of their workforce.
- One small business owner testified before Congress that the new health care reform law will “slow or stall the growth of small and midsized businesses as we struggle with the costly new requirements.”
By raising health care costs and destroying jobs, it is clear the 2010 law was the wrong prescription for reform. Republicans will continue fighting to repeal ObamaCare and enact commonsense solutions that will lower costs and encourage businesses to grow and create jobs.
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