As a reminder of why government-run healthcare is a terrible idea, V. Saxena gives us an example of how Obamacare is failing:
Whoops, it happened again — another small business has had to stop providing its employees with any healthcare benefits due to Obamacare.
Speaking with The Daily Wire, Maryland small business owner Thomas Kunkel explained how he used to offer his 31 employees monthly checks via a Health Reimbursement Agreement:
Under Kunkel’s agreement with workers, he [paid] a set dollar amount each month, and employees [were] free to purchase plans on the individual market, putting the money Kunkel [provided] them toward the cost of their premiums.
“It was actually allowing me to offer a medical insurance benefit to my employees without having to go through all of the challenges of a group plan,” he remarked.
That all changed in July of last year, when an Obama administration guidance prohibiting businesses from using Health Reimbursement Agreements anymore went into effect.
“Before, I could at least say we don’t offer health care because there are a lot of options available on the individual market, but we do reimburse up to ‘x’ number of dollars a month,” he said. “I could sell that as a better plan than a group plan. But of course now I don’t have that to offer. It makes it tougher to hire and retain and to be competitive.”
Congratulations, Obama, for not only taking healthcare away from Kunkel’s 31 employees, but for also making his business less competitive …
ObamaCare is not working. It’s time to put an end to this failure and its broken promises https://t.co/qpP3bX8mgJ pic.twitter.com/qCSwZwegMh
— GOP (@GOP) May 4, 2016
This brings us to this year’s tax season, which Kevin Kuhlman, director of legislative affairs for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, predicted likely caused a lot of problems for small business owners.
“I think many are not even aware of [the guidance] still and could be subject to penalties,” he said. “This is the first tax season that both employers and employees are filing their taxes. Discrepancies could appear there, and that could invite unwanted audits, which have costs in and of themselves, and then the potential penalties”:
They feel a little betrayed and a little misled. It just has reduced flexibility for a lot of small businesses. These businesses with fewer than 50 employees were told 100 times, ‘Oh, you have fewer than 50 employees, the law doesn’t apply to you,’ and then Treasury quietly put out regulations that say you can no longer do this flexible benefit that we’re offering instead.
You either have to offer expensive group coverage, which you can’t afford, or you’re completely on your own, and you can’t help your employees.
You mean to tell me that Obamacare in fact exacerbated the problem instead of ameliorating it?
No way, Jose!