We’ve heard all the complaints. The Death Panels. It will kill business employment. It goes on and on. But, there needs to be some sanity, some truth to the discussion.
I’ve discussed the death panels more than once. (Here’s a complete discussion.) The IPAB (Independent Payment Advisory Board) will not stop anyone from getting treatment- it will just stop everyone from paying for it for you. (One is always welcome to use his/her own funds for treatments that are considered too useless for the charges involved to require everyone to include same in their plans.)
As to the other complaint? That it will stop employers from providing insurance? Only if you are PapaJohns. (This hurts me- I was a devoted fan of their pizzas- but I have to stop frequenting the place unless and until they change their neanderthal beliefs.) Where John Schnatter decided to cut the hours of his employees rather than raising the price of pizza by 12 cents. (Or, maybe he should cut out his SuperBowl specials that cost him even more money than that and offer the health insurance to his employees.) I might have bought that reasoning, if the law were already in force- but it’s clear he is simply grandstanding. (Maybe he can buy one of those coal mines in West Virginia and demand his employees parade for Romney. That was another version of grandstanding.)
You see, the law is pretty clear- when it applies in 2014. If you have less than 50 employees- nothing changes. Oh, you can be a good employer (my choice of terms) and offer insurance for your employees- and you will obtain a tax credit (a fairly large one, I might add) for a few years. Or, you can not offer insurance, and suffer no consequence (except for the difficulty in obtaining the best employees).
If you have 50 or more employees and insurance is offered, then the law has no bearing upon you either. But, if you don’t- and your wages are so low that WE, the US Citizens, have to subsidize your employees so they CAN obtain insurance- well, you will pay US back $ 2000 per employee, for each employee you have on your payroll over the first 30.
And, if only some of your 50+ employees need to buy subsidized insurance and not others, then there’s a different penalty. for each employee after the 30th, you will owe the US Treasury the lesser of $ 2000 for each employee or $ 3000 for those receiving subsidies. (Let’s make this absolutely clear, by example. 100 employees. 15 need subsidies. That would mean you would owe the lesser of $2000 X 70 employees [$140K] or $ 3000 X 15 subsidies [$45K].)
Now, you may say this is onerous. But, let’s give ourselves a little context. When Richard Nixon, that supreme Lefty who considered me an enemy, was President, his health care plan would have required employers to cover 75% of the basic health care insurance costs (which is considerably higher than the Obamacare situation). And, Clinton’s 1994 plan would have made that number 80%. PPACA (the real term for Obamacare) does not require employers to offer health care- but there are penalties if they don’t pay them enough to preclude subsidies to purchase their own insurance, American citizens should not be subsidizing your bad choices- so you are penalized for about 15% of the average cost of health care in America (much lower than either Nixon’s or Clinton’s proposed plans).
So, let’s get back to Schnatter and PapaJohns. Is his company making money? You betcha, it is. As have been most American companies- which have been recording record profits, as worker pay hits record lows. And, then have many of them complain about the costs for unemployment insurance (wait a minute- do they not provide such generous payments — in the millions for their executives terminated for cause?), welfare (to subsidize the families of those getting those kopeks as wages), etc.
So, let’s keep the facts in mind. If you pay your employees reasonable wages, if you provide them with reasonable health care, then Obamacare won’t affect your company. If you are a true small employer (none of this 5000 employee ‘small companies’), then Obamacare doesn’t affect your company. Yet, Obamacare will make your employees more able to work (since they won’t let illnesses linger once they have insurance) and we may even begin to gain control over our spiraling healthcare costs here in America.
OMG Roy what are you trying to do here giving us all your facts, and figures? I can’t rant against real statistics!
I can’t wrap my mind around one human being wanting to deny another human being the capability to insure themselves if they work for them. I also can’t wrap my mind around people who don’t want everyone to have access to health care. On another note: Is Papa John’s Kosher? I can’t even think of where one is in my area. Consider me boycotting it by proximity I guess. Which is fine, I’d rather frequent locally owned establishments. Great post, and I hope you have your flame retardant undies on, because without fail this will bring out the blow torches!
Lisa Brandel recently posted..Dragonfly In Blue by Lisa Brandel
See, I don’t think i flamed anyone, Lisa! If I just report what someone says- showing how foolish it is- that’s not a flame. That’s making clear that polemics have no value in public policy.
re: My former choice of PapaJohns- I used the plain cheese pizza, but bought a slew of others for our staff. If I walked around and saw more than two working after hours, I felt we owed them some relief- and ordered (and picked up) the pizza for them.
I’m not sure we can make the assumption that employees won’t let illnesses linger because they have insurance. Our system of managing disease – you get sick, the plan pays – does not work. But, I’ll leave that soap box for another day. 😉
Cathy Miller recently posted..Creating Your Own Social Media Zen
So, I understand your reluctance to agree that employees won’t necessarily visit their practitioners just because they have insurance. However, employers can (and, nowadays, often do) require annual health care visits as a condition of continued employment. I’m not saying that will preclude problems- but it will certainly insure that long times won’t develop between examinations.
And, the question always arises when an employee seems to think that antibiotics are only needed if there is a temperature…like that was the gatekeeper!
But, I am sanguine, Cathy!
Medical bills are high, everywhere. And I feel your employer needs to give you the insurance. The good thing is that my university offers insurance for the student too.it doesn’t make it cheap but it makes it affordable. The one thing that you could do for someone who works for you is offer them the security of being able to take care of themselves.
It’s a pity abut the pizza guy, I was a huge fan of their pizzas and somehow it tasted better than the other chains. Sadly, their employees re suffering. Literally.
Hajra recently posted..Inspiration, Laziness, Secrets
OK, Hajra. You feel that the employer needs to provide you insurance. So, would you take 5K or 10K less in salary this year (and every year thereafter) to cover the cost of this insurance? These are real considerations. If I compensate my employees well enough (let’s say, for arguments sake, 10X minimum wage should I also have to pay for an additional 1/2 to 1 hour for every hour you work to provide you with health insurance?
I am not disagreeing with you, just making it clear that, for the smaller company, the costs are about that value. The larger companies (200 or more employees) get better rated policies and are less expensive.