R
Ridgerunner
Guest
You’re not alone in that. I think 99% of the population would say the same thing. Certainly, I would. It almost seems that some new, weird, thing gets unearthed in the morass every day. There are also questions that don’t seem to have answers at all.Thanks, I understand and agree with that. It’s the health care law I find confusing.
I truly think it’s going to take years for people to have any kind of comprehensive grasp of what the effects of Obamacare really are. Not the least of the unknowns is what additional mandates Obama has in mind. Such things can change the cost for everybody, particularly those who are not going to get subsidies.
I truly don’t see how an employer of more than 50 people will be able to project his costs. At any time, one or more of his employees could go from an unsubsidized employee to a subsidized employee, which could greatly affect the fines he will pay or even more, the cost of trying to subsidize his own employees’ healthcare so generously that nobody will be subsidized. The employer can’t control whether somebody is subsidized or not unless he adopts a “Cadillac” plan for everybody. But if he does that, all the employees will pay the 40% tax on those plans, and won’t be too happy about it, especially if they were okay with what they had before. The uncertainty might, at some point, make it economically more feasible just to stop providing health insurance and pay the fine for everyone. That, of course, will affect hiring decisions and possibly the structure of the business or even its location. But I think it would likely take years of experience in any given industry before any of this can be projected into the future at all reliably. In the meantime, the uncertainty is simply baffling.
The only certain way to avoid unforeseen consequences would simply be for the employer to locate in another country where he doesn’t have to deal with obamacare. Some can’t, some won’t, some will.