Okay, okay, I know. This isn’t a politics blog, but I think this new Affordable Care Act may soon change how much beer I can purchase, because this household just lost some money.
I identify as a Democrat, on normal days. Most times I’m a Moderate, or a I vote for what I believe, not what my party says type of person. I voted for Obama, and I was stoked for “Obamacare” or the “Affordable Care Act.” As some of you may know, companies are getting ready to start implementing most of these new policies in 2014. This means that they’re looking at labor costs and healthcare costs this far in advance.
My boyfriend works for a university kitchen. It’s unionized, so when he hired in he was given a quota of about 1,000 hours for the year, and told that after that he’d be laid off for a little while (maybe as little as a week) and then be rehired with a significant pay bump and be part of the union (by significant, I mean around a $4 increase). Yesterday, citing the Affordable Care Act, he bosses informed him that he still had a quota of 1,000 hours, and then after that he could be laid off for months or weeks, depending. When he does get hired back, though, he can expect to not get a pay bump or an hour increase like he was originally promised. The reason? If an employee works over 30 hours he is eligible for healthcare. While I believe this should have been the case ages ago, what his company is doing is hiring no full time employees and not increasing pay so that they don’t lose money. The unions are apparently already getting on the college for that, but, since my boyfriend isn’t a part of the union, I don’t think we’ll see any help from them.
Ryan has been living without heathcare all of his adult life. While I’m excited that he’ll qualify for free Medicaid (I believe, I’d have too look more into it), a few check-ups aren’t really going to outweigh the cost of the loss of hours and the pay increase we were really hoping for. Additionally, even if he were to go try and find another job as a cook somewhere else, there’s a high probability that they’re doing the same thing as the university kitchen.
Any thoughts on the Affordable Care Act? I found this article at the Huffington Post which explains a little what Ryan is going through.