Dear Voters and Gloaters,
Some of you have been rather cross with employers laying off employees due to the high costs of Obamacare. Even though some rather astute people have done their best to gently explain to you that this was the consequence of re-electing Obama, it hasn't quite sunk in. I'll do my best to explain in the simplest way I can. Try to bear with me.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)- or "Obamacare", as it is more commonly known- is essentially a nationalised health service that requires employers and individuals to buy into it whether or not they need or want it.
Translation #1: Everybody has to do this because the government says so.
It is heavily regulated with mandates, subsidies, taxes and penalties, as well as a nineteen member board which will determine what treatments and what costs are appropriate.
Translation #2: There are lots of rules and lots of money you have to pay. Also, nineteen people you have never met will decide what treatment is best for you, whether you like it or not.
The current population of the United States is 314,762,533. In 2011, only 48.6 million people were uninsured, down from 50 million.
Translation #3: There are now 314,762,533 people in the US. As of 2011, the number of people without health insurance actually went down meaning that out of a population of 311,591,917, 262,991,917 had some form of health insurance.
A poll taken in October 2012 suggested that 52% of voters wanted to repeal Obamacare.
Translation #4: A lot of people don't like Obamacare.
Now that Obama has been re-elected, there is no repeal of Obamacare.
Translation #5: You can't take Obamacare back because Obama is still in the White House.
Generally, "full-time" employment means the entire period at a designated workplace in which the employee must be present and working on required tasks for which he or she is compensated (often thirty or forty hours a week, for example). Under Obamacare (pages 138-39, to be exact), any employer with more than twenty-five full-time employees will have to cover fifty percent of the health insurance credit amount. If they do not, they will pay a fine of $750 USD per employee. That means that if an employer has twenty-six full-time employees, he has to cover half of the cost of the imposed insurance or pay $19,500 fine (which could rise).
Translation #6: That's a lot of money.
These costs, mandates and fines are too onerous for the employer, particularly a small-business owner, that he or she is forced to trim his or her workforce by half and reduce hours in order to avoid such costs.
Translation #7: That's too much money for a guy who owns a small business like a coffee shop. He'll have to fire some people and cut hours just to make ends meet.
A reduction of work hours will mean a diminished quality of life. In one of the most expensive cities in the US - New York- an adult without children would have to earn $12.75 just to live. If his work week is reduced to twenty-nine hours, how will he survive?
Translation #8: No money, mo' problems.
I hope I didn't go too fast for you.
Some of you have been rather cross with employers laying off employees due to the high costs of Obamacare. Even though some rather astute people have done their best to gently explain to you that this was the consequence of re-electing Obama, it hasn't quite sunk in. I'll do my best to explain in the simplest way I can. Try to bear with me.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)- or "Obamacare", as it is more commonly known- is essentially a nationalised health service that requires employers and individuals to buy into it whether or not they need or want it.
Translation #1: Everybody has to do this because the government says so.
It is heavily regulated with mandates, subsidies, taxes and penalties, as well as a nineteen member board which will determine what treatments and what costs are appropriate.
Translation #2: There are lots of rules and lots of money you have to pay. Also, nineteen people you have never met will decide what treatment is best for you, whether you like it or not.
The current population of the United States is 314,762,533. In 2011, only 48.6 million people were uninsured, down from 50 million.
Translation #3: There are now 314,762,533 people in the US. As of 2011, the number of people without health insurance actually went down meaning that out of a population of 311,591,917, 262,991,917 had some form of health insurance.
A poll taken in October 2012 suggested that 52% of voters wanted to repeal Obamacare.
Translation #4: A lot of people don't like Obamacare.
Now that Obama has been re-elected, there is no repeal of Obamacare.
Translation #5: You can't take Obamacare back because Obama is still in the White House.
Generally, "full-time" employment means the entire period at a designated workplace in which the employee must be present and working on required tasks for which he or she is compensated (often thirty or forty hours a week, for example). Under Obamacare (pages 138-39, to be exact), any employer with more than twenty-five full-time employees will have to cover fifty percent of the health insurance credit amount. If they do not, they will pay a fine of $750 USD per employee. That means that if an employer has twenty-six full-time employees, he has to cover half of the cost of the imposed insurance or pay $19,500 fine (which could rise).
Translation #6: That's a lot of money.
These costs, mandates and fines are too onerous for the employer, particularly a small-business owner, that he or she is forced to trim his or her workforce by half and reduce hours in order to avoid such costs.
Translation #7: That's too much money for a guy who owns a small business like a coffee shop. He'll have to fire some people and cut hours just to make ends meet.
A reduction of work hours will mean a diminished quality of life. In one of the most expensive cities in the US - New York- an adult without children would have to earn $12.75 just to live. If his work week is reduced to twenty-nine hours, how will he survive?
Translation #8: No money, mo' problems.
I hope I didn't go too fast for you.
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