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With all the "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" hysteria going on about the ACA I thought it would be helpful for people to get a grip on some actual facts instead of pissing themselves over "predictions" like...small businesses will crumble.
First and most shame inducing facts-
-Of 17 high-income countries studied by the National Institutes of Health in 2013, the United States was at or near the bottom ininfant mortality, heart and lung disease, sexually transmitted infections, adolescent pregnancies, injuries, homicides, and rates of disability. Together, such issues place the U.S. at the bottom of the list for life expectancy
-According to the World Health Organization , the United States spent more on health care per capita ($7,146), and more on health care as percentage of its GDP (15.2%), than any other nation in 2008.
-The Commonwealth Fund ranked the United States last in the quality of health care among similar countries, and notes U.S. care costs the most.
-The United States is among the few industrialized nations in the world that does not guarantee access to health care for its population
-In 2007, 62.1% of filers for bankruptcy blamed medical expenses. About 25% of all senior citizens declare bankruptcy due to medical expenses, and 43% are forced to mortgage or sell their primary residence
So, yeah...go US.
Then there was this article in Forbes, challenging the notion of the devastation it would cause to small businesses:
Businesses With Fewer Than 50 Employees
The Affordable Care Act does not require businesses with fewer than 50 full-time employees to provide their employees with healthcare coverage. To put this into perspective, 96 percent of the businesses in the U.S. have fewer than 50 employees, which illustrates the improbability of the detrimental effects that some claim the Act will have on business. (And if you have fewer than 25 employees and choose to provide insurance anyway, the Act provides a tax credit to offset the cost.)
Employees of businesses with fewer than 50 employees that do not provide health insurance will be eligible to purchase their own coverage through the health insurance exchanges that will be established under the Affordable Care Act in 2014.
Businesses With More Than 50 Employees
Businesses with more than 50 employees will be required under the Affordable Care Act to provide healthcare coverage to their employees. Let’s put this into perspective. Only 0.2 percent of the businesses in the U.S. with more than 50 employees do not already provide healthcare insurance to full-time employees.
The Affordable Care Act has provisions to make providing health insurance very affordable for many of these businesses. In fact, purchasing insurance through the insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act will be permitted in 2014 for businesses with as many as 100 employees in some states. Additionally, states will be permitted to allow businesses with more than 100 employees to purchase healthcare coverage in the shop exchanges starting in 2017.
All things considered, I think the Affordable Care Act is actually a major step towards creating a more prosperous America — because as entrepreneurs and business owners, it enables us to provide a better life for those who help make our success possible everyday.
Is The Affordable Care Act Really Bad For Business? - Forbes
If you consider higher insurance cost for the average person, not being able to keep your Doctor, not being able to work a full week because employers will not allow you to work a full week because of Obamacare, if taxing companies that make medical equipment, taxing young people for not buying insurance and many more negatives is good for the American people then I guess your onto something.
I was listening to the Reds on WLW last week. I fell asleep and woke up during the truck driver show. One guy called in and made a statement very close to this one, again close to word for word. HE went on and on calling Obama names, then he said a couple of blank blank ing obama promised him he could keep his doctor. The guy running the show is not quite as dumb as most of his callers asked him why he had lost his doctor already, what happened? This caller was dead serious, he said his doctor transferred to another department, hell he might have gotten promoted, but Obama did not take him away. But the caller was furious. I guess Obama should not have allowed him to transfer. He did not seem to bright but he seems to have these points memorized. Wonder why.
If you consider higher insurance cost for the average person, not being able to keep your Doctor, not being able to work a full week because employers will not allow you to work a full week because of Obamacare, if taxing companies that make medical equipment, taxing young people for not buying insurance and many more negatives is good for the American people then I guess your onto something.
if they cut your hours, you insurance will get cut too. (its that %%%%% thing you know LOL )
Who was the moron that decided a BUSINESS was responsible to provide healthcare? Its one thing if businesses want to provide insurance as a benefit to attract a higher quality and caliber of employee, but its another thing entirely to mandate that as a responsibility. As an employer, my responsibility is to ensure the people I have hired have safe working conditions and they get their checks on time. Im not responsible for their healthcare, their partners healthcare, their childrens healthcare, nor SHOULD I be. Thats just foolish.
No...businesses were not mandated to provide insurance. Those that CHOSE to, did. And why is there this cap at 35 employees (or for that matter...a waiver to anyone that requests one (and happens to be a democrat campaign contributor)? Why waivers at all if this is such a benevolent 'good' thing?I agree. Of course that happened long before Obamacare.
I agree. Of course that happened long before Obamacare.
Who was the moron that decided a BUSINESS was responsible to provide healthcare? Its one thing if businesses want to provide insurance as a benefit to attract a higher quality and caliber of employee, but its another thing entirely to mandate that as a responsibility. As an employer, my responsibility is to ensure the people I have hired have safe working conditions and they get their checks on time. Im not responsible for their healthcare, their partners healthcare, their childrens healthcare, nor SHOULD I be. Thats just foolish.
Hogwash. Businesses used insurance as an incentive to attract more qualified employees and used it as an incentive to keep people from job hopping. It takes money and time to hire and train new personnel. There is no 'limit' to what I can pay my employees. Where do you get that from?The federal government forced businesses to limit the wages of their employees. Employers had to find another way to compensate workers. Thus employer provided healthcare came into being.
The federal government forced businesses to limit the wages of their employees. Employers had to find another way to compensate workers. Thus employer provided healthcare came into being.
Hogwash. Businesses used insurance as an incentive to attract more qualified employees and used it as an incentive to keep people from job hopping. It takes money and time to hire and train new personnel. There is no 'limit' to what I can pay my employees. Where do you get that from?
Employer-sponsored health insurance plans dramatically expanded as a direct result of wage controls imposed by the federal government during World War II.[18] The labor market was tight because of the increased demand for goods and decreased supply of workers during the war. Federally imposed wage and price controls prohibited manufacturers and other employers from raising wages enough to attract workers. When the War Labor Board declared that fringe benefits, such as sick leave and health insurance, did not count as wages for the purpose of wage controls, employers responded with significantly increased offers of fringe benefits, especially health care coverage, to attract workers.
No...businesses were not mandated to provide insurance. Those that CHOSE to, did. And why is there this cap at 35 employees (or for that matter...a waiver to anyone that requests one (and happens to be a democrat campaign contributor)? Why waivers at all if this is such a benevolent 'good' thing?
Hogwash. Businesses used insurance as an incentive to attract more qualified employees and used it as an incentive to keep people from job hopping. It takes money and time to hire and train new personnel. There is no 'limit' to what I can pay my employees. Where do you get that from?
Of course there is a difference between encouraging someone and mandating them.They were incouraged to do so by getting a special tax deduction. Not really much difference than having to pay a small fine under Obamacare if they don't provide insurance. for the majority of Americans with insurance, their insurance has been tied to their work place for decades.
I do agree that the waivers are rediculous. Of course I am on your side to a degree, I am not an Obamacare supporter, I'm just saying that it's not going to have as big of a negative effect on our economy as many conservatives are predicting. It's net effect is pretty much going to be zilch, it will be very good for a few individuals, slightly bad for many more individuals (due to rising costs), and have a fairly minor effect on less than 2% of businesses. Our aggregate economy is hardly going to notice the difference as any negative effects have already been accounted for in our slow economic growth and lack of wage increases.
And that is the case today or anywhere for the last 50 years?
Of course there is a difference between encouraging someone and mandating them.
The employers impacted disagree. We are routinely hearing of employers that are cutting workers back to part time or simply not hiring. Rather than listen to the people that want healthcare on someone elses dime, people should pay more attention to the actual employers. Or...those that are so very pro Obamacare could step up and be employers.
And that is the case today or anywhere for the last 50 years?
Thats true, but it doesn't make the point that keith was making invalid.
When employee health insurance became tax deductible for businesses, they started competing more with better and better health care plans, and less with wages, because the after tax benefits to both the employee and the employer were assumably better with insurance than pay. It's a trade off. But it also helped to promote inflation in the health care sector because as more people got "free" insurance from their employer, people became less concerned about the cost of healthcare and stopped price shopping, which created a non-competitive environment for health care providers, so they felt free to jack up prices.
Health insurance being connected to our employment is the #1 largest cause of increases in health care prices, next to the existence of the prepaid healthcare plan that most of us call "good insurance".
Is it not pure insanity to declare forcing medical care prices to go (and stay) higher is the "keystone" of the "affordable" care act?
Who was the moron that decided a BUSINESS was responsible to provide healthcare? Its one thing if businesses want to provide insurance as a benefit to attract a higher quality and caliber of employee, but its another thing entirely to mandate that as a responsibility. As an employer, my responsibility is to ensure the people I have hired have safe working conditions and they get their checks on time. Im not responsible for their healthcare, their partners healthcare, their childrens healthcare, nor SHOULD I be. Thats just foolish.
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