Impact of ObamaCare on Jobs: Does ObamaCare Kill Jobs?

How will ObamaCare Impact Job Growth, Unemployment, Wages, Operation Costs or Hiring Practices?

What is the impact of ObamaCare on jobs, is ObamaCare really a Job Killer? ObamaCare does affect job growth, hiring, wages and consumer costs. However, the impact of ObamaCare on jobs isn't as drastic as you might have heard. So far there is no study that shows ObamaCare causes Americans to lose their jobs or to have an effect on unemployment.

The fact is ObamaCare Job studies have shown it increases job growth creating millions of new jobs. While the exact numbers vary, the only report of job loss is from a CBO report referring to workers leaving their jobs from no longer having to rely on their employer for benefits.

ObamaCare Fact: More than 96 percent of the nation's firms with 50 employees or more already offer health insurance to their workers despite the rising cost of health care (health care costs rise every year, ObamaCare curbs the rate of growth).

How ObamaCare Creates Jobs

ObamaCare creates jobs in two ways, first our tax dollars go to creating millions of new health care jobs. This includes funding for improving training for young adults getting training in health care. The second way ObamaCare creates jobs is through small business.

Small businesses have increasingly stopped providing health benefits to their employees over the past decade due to the ever rising cost of health care premiums. The rising costs don't effect larger firms hiring processes. ObamaCare helps to regulate insurance making it more affordable to small businesses increasing job retention rate and making those jobs more attractive.

The Negative Impact of ObamaCare on Employee Health Insurance

The March 2012 CBO report projects that 3 to 5 million fewer people will, on net, obtain health coverage through their employer a year from 2019-2022. This study gives us an idea of how both jobs and employee health insurance will be affected by ObamaCare.

Of course it is not as cut and paste as saying ObamaCare is hurting employees, in fact many employers and employees will benefit from ObamaCare. Many of these employees will simply get health insurance elsewhere (the exchanges, Medicaid, CHIP) if the employer decides that not insuring them is economical. Here is a breakdown of where those 3 to 5 million are coming from:

About 11 million people who would have had an offer of employment-based coverage under prior law will not have an offer under ObamaCare. That estimate represents about 7 percent of the roughly 161 million people projected to have employment-based coverage under prior law. The businesses that choose not to offer coverage as a result of ObamaCare will tend to be smaller employers and employers with predominantly lower-wage workers; those workers and their families are more likely to be eligible for Medicaid, CHIP, or subsidies through the health insurance exchanges.

Another 3 million people who would have had employment-based insurance under prior law and will still have an offer of such coverage under ObamaCare will instead choose to obtain coverage from another source. Under the legislation, workers with an offer of employment-based coverage will generally be ineligible for exchange subsidies, but that "firewall" will presumably be enforced imperfectly, and an explicit exception to it will be made for workers whose offer of employment-based coverage is deemed unaffordable

About 9 million people who would not have been covered by an employment based plan under prior law will have that coverage under ObamaCare. That change reflects the combined impact of the insurance mandate, the penalties that will be imposed on employers who do not offer insurance, and the tax credits for certain small employers who provide insurance for their workers—which will lead some employers who would not have offered coverage in the absence of ObamaCare to offer it and will lead some people who would not have taken up their employer's offer of insurance to do so.

The Impact of ObamaCare on Employers with Over 50 Full-Time Employees

Job creators with over 50 full-time employees must pay a penalty for not insuring workers. There is also a .09% tax on 3% of small businesses making a profit of over $250k.

The requirement for employers to pay more health care costs and provide insurance will increase operation costs. Of course that money has to come from somewhere and it's up to the employer to figure out how they will deal costs associated with ObamaCare. However the big fib in America right now is that that money has to come from slashing the hours of American workers.

Obamacare Hiring and Insurance for Employees. What Aren't They Telling Us?

Large employees have a long history of using new taxes and wage increases as scapegoats. Just because businesses have to adjust to new regulations doesn't mean that American health care reform is bad, it just means that these businesses have to evolve and figure out how they will deal with the costs. Most companies will admit that while there are rising costs, the best solution will most likely be protecting shareholders and workers and passing costs onto consumers (usually a matter of a few cents per item).

ObamaCare saves tens of millions of lives and provides unprecedented tax breaks to many small businesses helping them thrive and already successful companies have already adopted health benefits for their workers without government enforcement. So why all the fuss?

Papa John's and the Health Care "Story"

Corporate sponsored entities have been reporting that ObamaCare "kills jobs", yet no study has shown this. While some multimillionaire franchise owners have made a lot of noise, most companies say ObamaCare won't effect their hiring process or their employees hours.

One business who has been very outspoken about their dislike of ObamaCare is Papa Johns. A study shows Papa John's will have to increase the cost of their pizzas by 4 cents a pie to insure workers. All of this while paying Payton Manning to be the poster boy for a campaign to give away 2 million free pizzas.

Papa John's recently tried to gain support for their message by giving customers a deal on a Double Bacon Six-Cheese pizza (wonder how much the health risks involved with that raise insurance premiums on their own... What do you say about .04 cents on every American)

Ultimately Papa Johns CEO has decided while he doesn't embrace Obamacare, " our business model and unit economics are about as ideal as you can get for a food company to absorb Obamacare. We will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass that cost onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders' best interests." Or in summary Papa Johns puts their shareholders' best interests before their employees and customers.

Franchise Owners Take ObamaCare Costs out on Workers

Franchise owners of chains like Papa John's, KFC, Taco Bell, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Denny's, Longhorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille and Applebee's say ObamaCare will force them to cut employees' hours since they can't afford to provide more full-time workers with health insurance or pay the fines for leaving them uninsured.

Many of these chain's franchise owners have taken the opportunity to talk about the horrors of the cost of ObamaCare, which of course must be taken out on customers and employees, on Fox News. Other sources for the "job killer" rumors include crossroadsgps, Forbes, Heritage Foundation among other openly anti-Obamacare sources. For our information we have turned to cross referenced studies by experts, including the CBO report on ObamaCare.

What the "Job Killers" Aren't Telling You

The corporate loud mouths want to blame health care for "killing jobs", but companies are the ones in control of their hiring and firing process. If they want to slow down productivity, deal with sick workers, low-job retention and the costs of training and re-training by cutting jobs and wages, then that makes them "job killers" not ObamaCare. Is there more to this picture? What aren't these companies telling us?

What they don't tell you is that over the past decade the amount of small businesses who can afford to provide health insurance to their employees has dropped dramatically, while larger businesses have been mostly unaffected. 3/4 of small businesses who dropped employee benefits because of the rising costs of health care will receive tax credits to offer their employees insurance which will help to increase hiring rates and decrease turn over, making small business jobs more attractive.

ObamaCare helps small business, and forces bigger businesses who don't want to provide benefits to do something that the big boys already do, treat their workers with respect.

Perhaps it's time to start supporting the 96% of large employers who already offer benefits including WholeFoods, Nordtrom, Starbucks, UPS, Lowe's, JCPenny, Land's End, JP Morgan Chase, Barnes & Noble, Target, Home Depot, Costco, among many others who all offer part-time employees health benefits.

How Do Increased Health Benefits Help Businesses Grow Jobs and Hire

70% of small businesses will be able to insure themselves and workers, something that has become increasingly rare due to the rising costs of insurance premiums, while this has never affected large employers much small business has been struggling for over a decade. Larger businesses will be able to offer more attractive jobs with better benefits, meaning that those businesses who adopt the ObamaCare model for how employees should be treated will likely see a net increase in profit despite some readjustment

How ObamaCare Will Impact Job Growth and Hiring due to Associated Costs Moving Forward into 2014

Right now ObamaCare isn't costing businesses much (assuming they are in the percentage that does face additional costs), therefore downsizing, cutting hours and not hiring are all being done in response to what is coming and not what has happened.

Romenycare didn't kill jobs and many successful companies have found that offering benefits improves full-time and part-time job retention and an overall ROI. Companies who feel they have to cut jobs and wages and not hire due to a slight increase in costs shouldn't blame the workers rights to health care, they should be looking into their business model to see why they can't compete. So while ObamaCare effects job growth, hiring, wages and operating costs, are impacted by ObamaCare it's not enough to cripple a business and take away health care reform to save a few bucks.