'If Obama wins, you're fired!'

[Drunky_Smurf]

@L. G. Butts

Why? The could have stopped offering insurance last year or the year before with no penalty, but now that they will be fined for not offering insurance they stop? What’s the rationale?

If the company had done that a year or so ago they would still be fined in the following years.

[Little_Nemo]

@mbh

They expect the fine to be cheaper than the insurance premiums.

That still makes no sense. There didn’t used to be a fine. So wouldn’t not paying the fine or the premiums have been cheaper than paying the premiums?

[simster]

how is it not ‘voter intimidation’ ?

[mbh]

@Little_Nemo

That still makes no sense. There didn’t used to be a fine. So wouldn’t not paying the fine or the premiums have been cheaper than paying the premiums?

Health insurance in the United States

Employer-sponsored health insurance plans dramatically expanded as a direct result of wage controls imposed by the federal government during World War II.[16] The labor market was tight because of the increased demand for goods and decreased supply of workers during the war. Federally imposed wage and price controls prohibited manufacturers and other employers from raising wages enough to attract workers. When the War Labor Board declared that fringe benefits, such as sick leave and health insurance, did not count as wages for the purpose of wage controls, employers responded with significantly increased offers of fringe benefits, especially health care coverage, to attract workers.[16]

Until recently, employers had to offer insurance, for fear that their competitors would lure away their best workers. Today, it’s the workers who have to compete for the jobs. And if the employer stops offering coverage, the worker can go to the government health insurance exchanges.

Take a look at the Wikipedia entry on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:

Affordable Care Act

Look at the stuff that goes into effect in 2014. Lots of stuff that will make insurance more expensive and more bureaucratic for employers. For a mere $2000.00 per worker, they get to walk away from the whole mess.

Republican conspiracy theorists believe that the Democrats designed it that way on purpose, in order to drive everyone to the government exchanges, and get rid of private health insurance altogether.