The undeniable disaster of Obamacare

No matter your opinion on the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, the reality is that the effects of implementing the law are creeping into the realm of pure disaster.

Obamacare will lower premiums? Not so much.

If you like your plan you can keep it? Not really.

Obamacare wont add to the federal deficit?  Not anymore.

Now, the end is in sight.  The city council of the union stronghold of Faribault has quite publicly announced that they will cut hours for city employees to avoid having to pay Obamacare tax penalties. 

On June 18, the general affairs committee of the City Council decided to reduce the hours of full-time-equivalent employees who worked 30 to 38 hours per week with the city in order to avoid paying penalties and to avoid providing health insurance to these employees.

There's no question of the reason for this move, no attempt at claiming budget cuts or savings; this is a direct consequence of Obamacare.

“Anyone who works 30-plus hours, we would have to provide benefits for them,” said the city’s human resources coordinator Kevin Bushard at the meeting.

Four city employees whose work hours are in the 30-hour range will be affected by the change. Their weekly hours will be reduced to 29 hours per week in order to be under the ACA’s requirements.

So in a mid-sized town like Faribault, 4 employees are taking a 20-25 percent haircut on their paychecks.  Multiply that effect by the hundreds of towns in a similar situation in Minnesota, and tens of thousands across the country, and its clear to see that even government employees will suffer under Obamacare.

Is this a simple case of evil politicians being greedy?  Maybe Faribault is actually a hotbed of closet conservatives who just want to make bad news headlines for the Democrat party? Nope.  The city is following the advice of their attorney and human resources coordinator, who tell them that keeping the employees at their current hours and paying the piper would be, well, discriminatory;

During the June meeting, Councilor Steve Underdahl asked Bushard if the city can’t afford to provide health insurance to the employees who work 30 to 38 hours, could the city pay the federal penalty instead?

“We can’t just pay the penalty,” Bushard said. “That would be discriminatory.”

Since the ACA considers all employees who work 30 to 50 hours per week as full time, providing health insurance to employees who only work 40 or more hours could be considered discrimination.

 Obamacare continues to be a massive train wreck for America, and those who are warning of the disaster ahead are ridiculed by the left as alarmist.  History will be the final judge.