We have to admit: Obamacare was created out of good intentions. Health care costs continue to rise in alarming rates, and millions of Americans cannot afford them. Plenty had no other choice but to suffer their diseases and sickness in silence.
Some of the main provisions of Obama’s health care bill have to do with how businesses operate. For one, companies with more than 50 employees should purchase a certain government-approved insurance coverage. Otherwise, they will be penalized. Second, all businesses are obliged to provide health care benefits to their full-time employees.
At initial glance, this is ideal. Employees are the ones who really work hard for the companies to stay afloat. It’s been proven over and over again that sickness, a high level of physical and emotional stress, and death can definitely reduce any enterprise’s productivity and competitiveness in the market.
However, there are also major concerns that should be raised regarding Obamacare.
First is the cost of insuring the full-time employees. Health care insurance is not as cheap as other people would think. Assuming that an employer has to pay at least $150 for every employee and he has around 30, then the company has to spend another $4,500. With a double-dip recession looming in the horizon, that’s not a small amount that can be ignored.
Worse, not all employees can produce a profit equal to the health insurance cost the company has to spend. In the end, businesses may end up losing more money than earning them.
It’s certainly not impossible therefore for businesses to take actions that can hurt not only the economy but their employees’ jobs as well. They may reduce full-time employment and settle for part-time work, or they may have to let go of those who are unskilled and inexperienced.
Second, there’s the threat of non-expansion. As mentioned, huge companies had to spend more for health care insurance. In order to avoid the additional expenses, they may have to maintain their small size.
Though small businesses are some of the driving forces in this country’s economy, their stagnation will not do us any good.
Many times, major economic and health care policies are often left for the Congress, Senate, and the rest of the executive government to tackle on. Those who always feel the impact are often left on the sidelines and perhaps hoping the government, especially President Obama, would hear them out.
We definitely believe it’s time for a serious dialogue, not only among the people of the government but also among and along with those in the business sector. Though we definitely recognize the grave importance in insuring employees, making sure they can have the financial capacity to take care of themselves and give their family a bright future, we also could not simply ignore the huge negative consequences businesses go through once Obamacare is passed. We don’t want to push ourselves to the brink, forcing us to let go of the employees we learned to care about or worse put an end to an enterprise simply because we couldn’t meet the requirements of the law.
In fact, we find it ironic. The government challenges us to produce more jobs, but the laws prevent us from doing so.
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