Obamacare: Bad for Local Government and Local Citizens

The unnecessary burdens imposed on America by Obamacare have been known for some time and discussed at length here at The Real Revo. Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has real-world consequences that are just beginning to be felt. One of the most predicted and easily foreseen result has been the reduction of part-time employee. Darden Restaurants and Regal Cinemas both announced that part-time employees would be limited to 28 hours and other companies have done so more stealthily. Walmart has a de facto hiring freeze on full-time employees and limited hiring of part-time employees. Home Depot might have a hiring freeze, but I’ve never been able to find an employee there to ask.

But, Obamacare’s  effects aren’t limited to private companies. Small governments are subject to the same requirements and having the same reactions, resulting in fewer hours for part-time employees with city or school jobs.

Phillipsburg, Kan.: “School administrators here say they are alarmed and confounded by the looming new costs they face with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act,” according to the Kaiser Health Institute News Service. Chris Hipp, director of a Kansas special education cooperative, warned that ObamaCare’s costs “could put us all out of business or change significantly how we do business,” adding that “we are not built to pay full health benefits for noncertified folks who work a little more than 1,000 hours a year.”

For some part-time employees, Obamacare means a reduction in paychecks by $3000 and still no insurance coverage. Low-wage, low-education citizens will have to get two jobs to get enough to survive and still won’t qualify for insurance. If they are young and single, they’ll pay up to 150% more for private insurance through Obamacare-mandated insurance exchanges that have yet to be built and which many insurance companies have announced they’ll avoid.

What this means for you and me is that there will be fewer people working less hours in local government to take care of the things that we deal with most often: community roads, schools, parks, fire and police departments, etc.  So, the next time you hit a pothole or see overflowing trash bins at the park or wonder why there are fewer cops on the road, thank Obama and the Democrats.

Heckuva train wreck there, Barry.

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