The era of mandates: Obama’s unfortunate legacy

ObamaCare mandates punish Americans far more than by the relatively small fines assessed to individuals who make their arguably wise decision to forego insurance by furthering the burden of health care to employers. Beginning in 2014, the law will impose the employer mandate – businesses with more than 50 full-time employees will be penalized thousands of dollars per employee unless they offer an “acceptable” level of coverage.

Instead of guessing about how employers will react to this requirement, we already see some of the consequences. Reducing wages by converting full-time workers into part-time workers to avoid this coverage mandate and its penalty is beginning across all industries, from conventional labor and service industries to university faculty. Ironically, reducing or eliminating insurance coverage benefits is another consequence, as employers rationally determine that a two thousand dollar penalty might be far less of a financial burden than offering the bloated coverage required by the government-mandated minimum essential benefits package. Stifling job creation is also part of the unintended consequences of the employer mandate – is there anyone who doubts that employers are even more hesitant to add workers when these costs are added to the already fragile economy?