#ObamaCare Employer Mandate Worse Than Feared

At IBD, "ObamaCare Employer Mandate Hurts Low-Wage Workers":

Yet another study purporting to show that ObamaCare hasn't caused many people to work fewer hours has set off another round of high fives among the law's boosters.

But they should hold their applause, because there's a strong case that ObamaCare's employer mandate is worse than its critics feared — though not necessarily for the reasons they expected.

While ObamaCare has clearly had a negative impact on work hours, which one serious flaw of the latest study — counting 29.5-hour workers as full-time — and other data limitations help to obscure, it's fair to say that the law hasn't curtailed full-time work in a big way. But that's because employers have figured out how to dodge liability by offering "affordable" coverage that costs much more than their modest-wage workers are likely to pay.

Gaming The System

This gaming of the system, which ObamaCare rules invite, has serious consequences. A few million full-time, modest-wage workers — and their spouses — have remained uninsured, with many liable for ObamaCare individual mandate penalties. Another roughly 1 million low-wage workers have opted for the kind of coverage that ObamaCare was supposed to do away with: skinny plans that won't cover hospitalization or surgery but will let them avoid a penalty.

Many other full-time, modest-wage workers are getting more comprehensive coverage via their employers — but with $5,000-plus deductibles that could easily torpedo their finances in a health emergency.

These are the direct effects of rules that deny full-time workers access to ObamaCare subsidies — and let employers escape a fine — if they offer bronze-level coverage costing a worker close to 10% of wage income for premiums alone. For a full-time worker earning $17,500, paying $1,670 for bronze coverage qualifies as "affordable." That's $1,000 more than someone at the same income level would have to pay for an exchange plan that caps total out-of-pocket expenses at about $550 in 2016.

Then there are the indirect effects of employer mandate rules that leave so many low-wage, full-time workers with coverage that is of little use...

Still more.