★ AMAC Op-Ed
Obamacare, Bad for Business
O
ver the past couple of months, a lot of attention in Washington and around the country has been focused on the Supreme Court as it considers the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or, Obamacare. Business owners have also been watching closely, if not nervously, because of the sheer implications that the law has on their ability to keep their doors open during these difficult economic times. Any business owner can tell you that the rising cost of health care has been one of their top concerns for years – but what has them really worried are the increased layers of cost, regulation and uncertainty stemming from Obamacare. Instead of making the problem of health care costs better, it makes it much worse. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Obamacare will reduce the labor force by 800,000 over the next decade and estimates that the cost to American businesses due to inability or failure to comply will be $52 billion. The last thing our economy needs are even more hurdles to job creation, yet that is precisely what the health care law represents. For a small-to-medium sized business, the prospect of having to comb through the 2,700 pages of Obamacare to figure out which of the $525 billion in taxes, or $26 billion in penalties, or hundreds of new regulations and mandates apply to them is daunting, to say the least. Is it any surprise that health care costs have risen already? 57% of employers nationwide say that health care costs have risen due to Obamacare, and in my home state of North Carolina, premium costs are projected to increase by 5.2% over last year’s costs.
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By Steve Zelnak, Job Creators Alliance
The problem with Obamacare isn’t the purported purpose of the law – to reform our nation’s health insurance system – the problem is the way in which the law attempts to achieve its goal: bigger government, more bureaucracy and a top-down approach that is Washington-centered. What the Job Creators Alliance believes is that there are consumer-centered solutions that could bring free-market dynamics to bear in containing health care and insurance costs. Things like expanding health savings accounts, making health insurance portable or allowing health insurance to be bought across state lines are just a few common sense, modern reforms that would be important steps in the right direction. Regardless of what the Supreme Court ultimately decides, the need for real reform remains and the Job Creators Alliance will continue to advocate for an approach that does not dampen free enterprise or disincentivize economic growth – because we all want to leave our posterity with the same economic opportunities for prosperity that we’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy. Mr. Zelnak is a member of the Job Creators Alliance, a nonprofit committed to the defense of the free enterprise system, the Chairman of the Board of Directors and former CEO (1994-2009 retired) of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc., and Chairman and majority owner of ZP Enterprises, a private firm founded in 2009, with three manufacturing companies that specialize in precision machining and coatings.