Is it too late to stop Obamacare?

The Congressional Budget Office continues to revise its numbers on the effects of job loss and hour reduction as a result of Obamacare. “The reduction in CBO’s projections of hours worked represents a decline in the number of full-time-equivalent workers of about 2.0 million in 2017, rising to about 2.5 million in 2024,” the report states.

That means a historically high number of people will either be laid off or see their hours reduced. Another unintended consequence of incessant government meddling.

The Congressional Budget Ofiice also says deficits will start to grow after 2015 because of

an economy that continues to limp along and a stubbornly high unemployment rate, that they project will not fall below 6 percent until at least the latter part of 2016.

To understand this is to understand basic economics. Heretofore, companies offered a variety of healthcare plans to both full-time and part-time employees. Now that every policy must be “Obamacare compliant” it’s no surprise that many part-timers are losing their healthcare coverage and many full-timers are seeing their hours cut below 30 hours per week to avoid the tremendous added expense of the mandated insurance policies.

Not only will lower-end employees not get health insurance, they’ll have less money to buy it on their own because their hours have been cut. But you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. As I’ve been predicting since they were debating Obamacare in Congress, you’re going to see a flood of companies opt to pay the $2,000 fine and put their employees on Obamacare. They’ll even throw in a raise, which will pacify the employee who might otherwise protest the move.

Again, it’s basic economics. If you’re an employer and you’re paying 15-grand for a health insurance policy and you can pay $2,000 per year and not have to fool with it, why wouldn’t you? On top of that, think of the expense of HR hours and resources devoted to administering the policies, answering myriad questions about them and keeping up with the mountains of paperwork associated with them. All of that will be gone.

Just imagine your boss coming to you and saying, “Look, we simply can’t afford the new insurance policy required by Obamacare but I tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to give you a $5,000 raise. You’re going to be able to go to the Obamacare exchange and choose either a gold, silver or bronze policy. Chances are you’ll get a subsidy to help pay for most of the policy. You’re going to have much better insurance and you get a raise to boot.”

What’s not to love, right? Of course, we’ve learned that any expense over $40,000 falls not on the insurance company but on the federal government. A little deal between Obama and the insurance companies to get them on board. In short order the whole thing will be bankrupt and then the rationing begins.

It’s surreal that we’re even at this place. This is something the left could only dream about just a few, short years ago. Now it’s a reality and, barring some lawsuit hitting pay dirt, we’re stuck with it, thanks to an inept opposition party in Congress.

At this point, it appears it’s every man for himself, as the old saying goes. It’s a scene right out of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. The moochers and looters set their sites on the producers. The producers assumed they could never breach the wall. Now the moochers and looters are inside. And they’re having their way with us all.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.