Get Ready for More Bureaucracy
Just recently, the Internal Revenue Service issued an 18-page, single-spaced notice explaining how to distinguish between full-time and part-time workers under the Affordable Care Act (“ObamaCare”). The difference matters, because the act requires employers with 50 or more full-time workers to provide health insurance for those workers. At the same time, no company has to buy insurance for part-time employees, defined as those working less than 30 hours a week.
Source: Robert Samuelson.
Good thing someone has the BLS in their pocket or this could look bad.
That seems incredibly complicated for something that can be stated so simply.
Apparently the Internal Revenue Service has a lot of clout. Rep. Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has threatened to subpoena records from the IRS about its decision to allow generous subsidies for individuals that obtain coverage in federally-run, health insurance exchanges. Many Republicans suspect the IRS is preparing to allow billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to be handed out illegally that weren’t authorized by the Affordable Care Act.
I love the emphasis added on the “18-page, single-spaced notice”, really? That much to explain a basic concept that, I would like to think, all of us employed, and unemployed too, are familiar with? Sounds like a bunch of nonesense.
Could we see more employers decrease hours of their workforce in order to avoid having to pay the fine? I think yes.
Always the need for endless, pointless paperwork…why can’t the same energy be devoted in a proactive way to something of greater importance?
Given the law, this is the most practical response. But it is still hard to navigate bureaucracy.