Obama's Health Care Reform Bill VS The Workforce

Everyone can agree that health care should be made available to every American. Now that President Obama has signed the bill into law we have yet to view the entire package. Already burdened tax payers will pay dearly for this one as in the end we still pay the cost. Businesses will be required to provide health coverage for employees. This action will have anegative impact on the work force as small business will have to scramble for extra funds to pay for health insurance. A small business owner will have 4 choices.

1) Raise the price of goods or services to compensate for the increase in costs. The end result consumers pay the price. Raising prices in a recession will slow sales which could lean toward layoffs adding more employees to the unemployment lines

2) Force employees to pay a greater percentage of the cost and opt for a cheaper policy with less coverage. Employees will see less take home pay stretching already tight belts. With less to spend in their pockets we slide further into a depression.

3) Lay off a few employees or freeze hiring as employees retire to compensate costs. This action will add workers to the unemployment lines sending us farther into a depression.

4) Start using temp agencies.

With a huge pool of overqualified work force in unemployment temps will be the wave of the future. An employer does not have to provide health coverage for temporary employees. Every few months the employer will tell the agency to send out different workers so they do not have to hire anyone. Productivity and customer service will decline as a result of temporary workers. Although they can be good workers, a temporary work force will have to be retrained every few months as they are bounced around from workplace to workplace. After a period of time this can have physiological effects on the best of workers.

Introducing a costly health care reform bill during a deep recession is bad politics. In the long run it might just push us into a depression. More job cuts and a further strain on the economy. The government always reports new unemployment filings for the month but they do not report the numbers whose unemployment benefits ran out and still are out of work. The government will not admit it because they always paint a rosy picture. Introducing the health care bill during a deep recession took the focus off the economy to the new subject of health care reform.

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