Obama Drops The Veto Hammer On Republican Plan To Take Healthcare Away From Millions

By: Jason Easley
Wednesday, January, 7th, 2015, 11:38 am   
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The White House announced today that President Obama will veto a Republican plan that will take away health insurance from one million Americans by restoring the 40-hour work week.
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In a statement, the White House said,
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The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 30, the Save American Workers Act, because it would significantly increase the deficit, reduce the number of Americans with employer-based health insurance coverage, and create incentives for employers to shift their employees to part-time work - causing the problem it intends to solve. Rather than attempting once again to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act, which the House has tried to do over 50 times, it is time for the Congress to stop fighting old political battles and join the President in forwarding an agenda focused on providing greater economic opportunity and security for middle class families and all those working to be a part of the middle class.

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This legislation would weaken a provision of the Affordable Care Act designed to maintain employer-based health insurance coverage, protect their employees, and prevent employers' health benefit costs from being shifted to taxpayers. According to the July estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, it would increase the budget deficit by $45.7 billion over the 2015 to 2024 period, reduce the number of people receiving employer-based health insurance coverage, and increase the number of individuals who are uninsured. While the Administration appreciates the concerns that result from the current 30-hour definition of full-time work, there is no evidence that this has caused a broad shift to part-time work to date. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, since the Affordable Care Act became law, more than 90 percent of the increase in employment has been in full-time jobs, and over that time, the economy has added 10.8 million private-sector jobs. Furthermore, by moving the threshold to 40 hours, this legislation could cause the problem it claims to solve by greatly increasing the number of workers for whom employers may have an incentive to reduce hours to avoid the requirement.
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