Perhaps they’re just trying to free people so they can be poets and play the bongos and commune with nature? Here’s that ultra-Conservative newspaper the NY Times to tell us all about it
Cities, counties, public schools and community colleges around the country have limited or reduced the work hours of part-time employees to avoid having to provide them with health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, state and local officials say.
Unlike the federal government, those entities named actually have to come in on budget. Well, supposedly, considering the number of cities filing for bankruptcy in the country. They can’t easily just take money from taxpayers.
The cuts to public sector employment, which has failed to rebound since the recession, could serve as a powerful political weapon for Republican critics of the health care law, who claim that it is creating a drain on the economy.
So, paragraph two and the Times is already concerned that Democrats could be in trouble.
Even after the administration said this month that it would ease coverage requirements for larger employers, public employers generally said they were keeping the restrictions on work hours because their obligation to provide health insurance, starting in 2015, would be based on hours worked by employees this year. Among those whose hours have been restricted in recent months are police dispatchers, prison guards, substitute teachers, bus drivers, athletic coaches, school custodians, cafeteria workers and part-time professors.
This will give them time to be comedians, writers, and camera people! They can pursue their happiness! They just will have neither the money to do it nor the money to purchase health insurance to avoid the Government fee/tax/fine.
It is not entirely clear how private employers will respond, but as some government officials point out, businesses at least have the option of passing along some of the additional costs to consumers.
Much of that has to do with the public sector unions.
The Obama administration says “there is absolutely no evidence†of any job loss related to the Affordable Care Act. And the Congressional Budget Office says “there is no compelling evidence that part-time employment has increased†as a result of the law.
Strangely, the NY Times random act of journalism provides actual evidence with real world cuts throughout the article.
William J. Lipkin, an adjunct professor of American history and political science at Union County College in Cranford, N.J., said: “The Affordable Care Act, rather than making health care affordable for adjunct faculty members, is making it more unaffordable. Colleges are not giving us access to health care, and our hours are being cut, which means our income is being cut. We are losing on both ends.â€
Hmph: a 100% Democrat piece of legislation is negatively affecting the very people (teachers, public sector workers) who tend to vote Democrat. People who supported Obamacare. Whose unions back Democrats 100%. Ironic.
There is entirely too much to excerpt from the article, much of it direct measures and stories of how Obamacare, the “Affordable” Care Act, is affecting workers in the public sector. I suppose now these folks do not have to worry about “job-lock” due to health insurance, eh?
Crossed at Right Wing News.
