Working: The health care law and employee status

1. Sixel, L.M. (2013, September 12). Working: The health care law and employee status. Houston Chronicle, D1 / D5.
2. Category of problem: Health
3. Level of problem: National level
4. The article concerns: Under the President's Affordable Care Act, penalties will be assessed to companies that don't provide quality and affordable coverage to their employees.
5. What is this important to families / individuals OR how does it affect individuals / families?
1. Misclassification of employees by companies is a common practice with the anticipation of the new health care law.  Tilting an employee as an independent contractor could bring the companies' full-time employee status below the 95% threshold that the law requires for providing benefits like health insurance, stock options, and 401K participation.  Employers are routinely classifying workers as contractors or part-time to save money on Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance and payroll taxes.
6. What are you view on the issue / policy?
1. The "Affordable Care Act" is a contradiction, in my opinion, for both employers and employees as well as people who have insurance outside of a company sponsored plan.  It has been reported that health insurance premiums will rise as much as 300% or more in states like California.  With the high cost of premiums as it is, who can afford to pay three times more every month for coverage?  It just doesn't fit into a family budget already hit hard by the economic downturn of the country.  But, individual hardships aside, companies are confused and anxious about exactly how the new law will be enacted and enforced.  Misclassifying employees is just one issue facing a company.  There does not seem to be any real clarity from the federal government about how an employer will implement the law into their business.  Already, companies like McDonalds, Target, Wal-Mart, Wendy's and others will start limiting some employees to a 29-hour workweek, one hour below the 30-hour workweek established by the government to categorize a worker as a full-time employee.  Companies are in business to make a profit for their owners / shareholders - one can hardly blame them for doing anything they can to make money, even at the expense of cutting hours for their workers.  The employee will be the real victim from this law with less hours and probably no way to obtain overtime pay because of the full-time status.  Their household income, where buying power has already been diminished by the economy, will become strapped even more.  With lawmakers in Washington, as well as some big companies singled out by them, exempting themselves from the law they wrote, it's time to get rid of the law or de-fund it before it hurts people more than they already are.