TARGET DUMPS PART-TIME EMPLOYEES INTO OBAMACARE

[Geee]

Human Events:

It’s not surprising that discount retailer Target is canceling health coverage for its part-time employees and dumping them into the hellish ObamaCare exchanges. It makes all the sense in the world for every employer in their position to do the same thing. The Affordable Care Act was designed to encourage it. And kudos to Target for giving affected employees an extra $500 apiece to help them make the transition.

 

I’d like to invite ObamaCare apologists to stand up and cheer as a huge corporation saves itself a pile of money by discontinuing benefits and passing those costs along to taxpayers, who will now be covering subsidies and credits for the 36,000 people Target used to insure. There will be a lot more to come, both from this company and other employers. Although Target insists it won’t cut anyone’s hours to push them under the 30-hour threshold and pack them off to the public exchanges, the incentives for doing so are incredibly powerful, particularly in a high-unemployment stagnant economy where it won’t be all that difficult to hire a larger number of employees to work fewer hours each. Perhaps Target will continue to resist those incentives, but other employers might put up less of a fight.