(Cartoon courtesy of NetRightDaily)
Paying Obamacare penalties would be less expensive than providing health insurance
By Joel Allumbaugh
Director of MHPC’s Center for Health Reform Initiatives
A case study from a real business in Maine, a commercial concrete company serving the construction industry, shows that providing health insurance benefits under Obamacare would result in an annual increase of almost $30,000.
Due to the requirements mandated by Obamacare, this small business would face a 27% increase in the cost of providing health insurance benefits. The business now pays a total of $109,022 a year to provide health insurance for its employees.
Under Obamacare, the small business would pay $137,932—an annual increase of $28,910.
However, if the business chose to drop health coverage all together, the penalty that Obamacare would impose on the company would total between $60,000 and $110,000. Since that amount could be significantly lower than the cost of providing health insurance under Obamacare, the small business may choose not to offer health insurance at all.
Furthermore, the case study does not account for the administrative costs the business would incur to manage Obamacare’s eligibility rules, which in this case would be quite significant.
“It is unfortunate that America’s policymakers did not thoroughly vet Obamacare before enacting it to verify that its grandiose economic claims of lower health insurance costs and increased jobs were based in reality,” said Joel Allumbaugh, author of the case study and director of the Center for Health Reform Initiatives at The Maine Heritage Policy Center.
“Instead, Americans are now saddled with Obamacare and its unintended consequences,” he said. “This case study of a real company finds that Obamacare will actually mean higher health insurance costs to employers and, in the long run, fewer jobs. Liberty-loving Americans who value control of their own healthcare must demand that policymakers repeal Obamacare as soon as possible.”
See the case study here. For more information about this case study or Obamacare, contact Joel Allumbaugh at jallumbaugh@mainepolicy.org.