Why Obamacare is Scary for the Folks Who Want Their Toilets Cleaned on the Cheap

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/why-obamacare-scary-folks-who-want-their-toilets-cleaned-cheap



Now that the talk of death panels and other craziness about Obamacare has faded away, people are looking more seriously at what the program actually will do. A major part of the story is that Obamacare will allow people to get health care outside of the workplace.

This has often been framed as an issue of insuring the uninsured. And this is an important part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, it is even more important that the tens of millions of people who currently have insurance through their employers will now have the option to quit their job and get insurance through the exchanges.

This means that millions of people will no longer be tied to their jobs in the same way as they had been previously. As a result, millions of older workers and people with serious health conditions are likely to cut back their hours or quit work altogether since they will no longer need to work at a job that provides health care insurance. The same will be true of many parents of young children who would rather work less to spend time with their kids.

This was the basis for the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) assessment that the ACA would reduce the supply of labor by 2 percent. CBO calculated that several million people would either cut back their work hours or leave the labor force altogether.

[CFLDem]

1. Skeptical democrat

is skeptical.

Who, especially common skill manual labor, A) gets health insurance through their jobs, and B) can afford premiums enough to quit?

I just don't think that'll happen until we get universal care like civilized countries have.

[Demit]

2. The article isn't referring to everyone, only to people who *could* afford to quit except for

not being able to afford (or even get) their own health insurance otherwise. People who are only working that job b/c it provides health insurance.

The article is making the point that people quitting jobs reduces the supply of labor, while the demand for that labor remains, and that will make wages rise. Employers will have to pay better wages—even to those workers who only do unskilled labor.

[CFLDem]

4. I'll believe that when it happens.

Employers can always import more maids, fry cooks, and tech workers.

[el_bryanto]

5. Yes they can - that's the point

Unless you are talking about them shifting more of the workforce to illegal aliens, they are going to need to entice people to take the jobs they want them to take; which means they are going to have to offer them more. Minimum health care provisions aren't going to be enough.

Bryant

[CFLDem]

6. They'll just shift to illegals.

The ACA alone is no match for the race to the bottom.

[el_bryanto]

7. I don't know if that's viable on a national level;

Boarder states sure; but we'll have to see.

Bryant

[CFLDem]

8. Please.

When I lived in IL, the kitchen staff and construction workers almost always consisted of Central Americans, the cleaning staff and cable techs were Eastern Europeans, and many warehouse workers were Central African or Haitian.

They're doing it now on a national level.

[el_bryanto]

9. and you knew they were illegal aliens? nt

[CFLDem]

10. Yep

Very little to no English skills, usually paid in cash, and would disappear frequently.

Hard to believe they were anything else.

[madville]

3. Working less may increase their subsidy

Working less may be a wash if it increases their subsidy or drops them down to Medicaid in states that expanded.