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Long Time Democratic Leader Admits ObamaCare Will Force Workers to Lose their Health Coverage

September 12, 2012



Last week, former Senator Bob Kerrey said that one of the pillars of ObamaCare “will accelerate an already breaking-down employer-based system.”  He was talking about the employer mandate, a requirement that forces employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees to offer government-prescribed health insurance or pay a new tax.  

Mr. Kerrey shares the same perspective as other small business owners across the country.  When talking about his own businesses, a restaurant chain and health club chain, he said, “We don’t have any (insured employee) that costs us less than $7,000 (a year), and the fine’s $2,000.  We’ll dump ’em off.  We won’t call it dumping, we’ll say … ‘Go get [health insurance] from the exchange.’”

Mr. Kerrey acknowledges what Republicans and independent analysts have been warning for over two years – in Mr. Kerrey’s words, ObamaCare’s employer mandate is “a very powerful incentive”  for employers to drop health coverage for their employees.  This incentive was highlighted in a report prepared by Ways and Means Committee staff which found that 71 of the Fortune 100 companies could save an estimated $28.6 billion in 2014 alone by dropping health coverage for their 10.2 million employees and their dependents and instead paying ObamaCare’s employer mandate tax.  

Health care coverage for the nearly 170 million Americans with employer-based health insurance will be at a greater risk with each day ObamaCare is the law of the land.  That is why it must be repealed in its entirety and replaced with common sense solutions that make health care affordable for all Americans.

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