Forty Hours is Full Time - Cut ACA Insurance Req't - Senator Susan Collins

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

Day One of the Republican-led Senate and the "moderate" Susan Collins (R-ME) joined with independent Lisa Murkowski (AL) to let employers drop health insurance for anyone who works under 40 hours/week.  The dread "Obamacare" requires employers to offer health insurance to all who work 30 hours per week.  The Senators blame the ACA not employers who cut workers' hours to avoid the requirement.
Rather than figure out a way to keep people insured the GOP and their allies propose to shift the costs entirely onto millions of workers.
Health insurance is cheaper when it comes via a group policy.  Employer-provided health insurance is subsidized because it is not taxed (except for `Cadillac policies' which in 2018 will be subject to a 40% excise tax to the extent the cost exceeds $27,500 for a family of four).  Depriving workers of employer-sponsored health insurance will cost workers dearly and save a lot for employers who can define almost anyone as working less than 40 hours, e.g. by defining lunch-time as non-working time.
Of course there is a solution - single-payer - such as Medicare for all like they do in the European social democracies.  Heaven forfend!
- GWC
Forty Hours is Full Time  - Senator Susan Collins"Washington, D.C. – Today U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Donnelly (D–IN) along with Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced the reintroduction of the bipartisan Forty Hours is Full Time Act, S. 30, which would change the definition of a “full-time employee” under the Affordable Care Act to someone who works an average of 40 hours per week. The senators have heard first-hand that some employers are making decisions to cut employees’ hours due to how the health care law defines a “full-time employee” – as someone who works an average of 30 hours per week. Employers are making the law’s 30-hour standard a part of their business planning, and as a result more than 450 employers nationwide, including 100 school districts, have already chosen to cut their workers’ hours to 29 hours a week or fewer. Collins and Donnelly first introduced this bipartisan solution in 2013 with the aim of making the health care law work better for families, employers, and employees. The bipartisan legislation, which the senators announced Wednesday, would help employees impacted by the current definition of full-time worker and allow employers to better plan for the future by using the more commonly accepted definition of “full time”: someone who works 40 hours.   Collins said, “Our legislation is very straightforward and would remedy a serious flaw in the Affordable Care Act that is causing workers to have their hours reduced and t"

'via Blog this'