The Affordable Care Act and your Job

The Affordable Care Act contains lots of benefits for employees. Apart from the promise that all Americans will finally be covered by insurance, the plan specifically offers: a guaranteed minimum level of service, extended coverage for college-age children; no pre-existing condition exclusions, one-stop shopping, and subsidies for underpaid workers. In a country whose healthcare system is based — for better or worse — on the free market, the ACA levels the playing field for poorer citizens.

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As the market absorbs the newly insured, this coverage will lead to better access to medical services which will lead to better health for individuals. With more healthy individuals will come productivity gains because of fewer sick days and a more employable workforce. There's are some issues to be critical of, but the ACA is a vast improvement over the prior dog-eat-dog scheme.

One of the surprising benefits of the ACA is an increased flexibility for workers chained to jobs for health coverage.

Texas Republican John Cornyn took to the Senate floor with the same message. "The president's own health care policy ... is killing full-time work, and putting people in part-time work," he said.

Obama's White House wasted little time responding, sending Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman to the daily press briefing. There, Furman turned Cornyn's charge on its head, arguing that if some people are able to work part time and spend more time with their children, or if others can leave a job to start a business of their own without fear of losing health insurance, then these are good things happening because of the Affordable Care Act. 

"This is a choice on the part of workers," Furman said. "I have no doubt that if, for example, we got rid of Social Security and Medicare, there are many 95-year-olds that would choose to work more. I don't think anyone would say that was a compelling argument to eliminate Social Security and Medicare," Furman said.

(See "More Access to Health Care means Millions can Quit or Cut Hours," NPR February 4, 2014.)

A person who wants or needs to work less, no longer has to sit in a job she hates. This leaves the job open for a new worker to take her place. Thus, the ACA benefits both the worker who enjoys the healthcare plan and the worker who might not otherwise find the job she was looking for.

KARIN WARREN: I was experiencing some pretty heavy job burnout. It's a very stressful job, and I was very unhappy. 

YDSTIE: It was made worse by a bout of breast cancer in 2012. Warren, who's single, wanted to work less, but couldn't. She needed her employer-sponsored health insurance. Then in November of 2012, when President Obama was reelected, Warren says she realized the Affordable Care Act would be implemented, and her situation could change. 

WARREN: I cried that night. I was so happy, because I knew that was my ticket to freedom. 

YDSTIE: She quit her job early in 2013, insured herself through Cobra, and then got covered by Obamacare in January of this year. 

WARREN: So, now I'm working happily a half-time job. I'm more relaxed and feel healthier than I did before. And my health insurance is in place and it's affordable, and I'm in bliss.

"MIT labor economist David Autor says that the CBO is right: the ACA will incentivize some people to work less. ... the Affordable Care Act will actually have the effect of reducing hours worked by the equivalent of two-and-a-half-million jobs by 2024, as the CBO forecasts. ... [and, r]ight now, t wouldn't be hard to find workers willing to take the hours or jobs being vacated by others." And I see that as a good thing.

(See "CBO Assesses Affordable Care Act's Economic Effects," NPR February 28, 2014.)

If you have questions about your rights in the workplace, contact me via my website Boucher Law.

Robert Boucher