No one could cross a room Oct.1st without hearing or seeing the words “Government Shutdown” buzzing around them. The reason behind the shutdown was a disagreement between the Democratic and Republican parties in an effort to carry out or stop the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly coined as “Obamacare.” After more than three years, the set of health reforms is being put into action.
On a minor scale, the hotly debated ACA will appear in everyday life- from stumbling across the calorie count on a chain restaurant’s menu, to parents providing their children with now 26 years of coverage under their health care plan. However, on a major scale it will only affect certain types of businesses. According to The Washington Post, 80 percent of Americans will hardly be affected.
Among the 80 percent not affected by the ACA are the employees at The Shack, a restaurant on Broadway. This business has less than 50 employees and will not have to face the ACA directly. The only commitment that The Shack owner Tanya Bale, had to make was to send a letter to her employees by Oct. 1st letting them know The Shack was not providing health insurance and how to find the health care market.
“I’m a small, small business, I have less than 24 employees and I only have five full-time employees so it doesn’t affect me at all in the sense that I don’t have to worry about paying health care for any of my employees because I don’t qualify,” Bale said. “If I were a multi-chain restaurant, if I was bigger and in multiple locations, then I can see where it would keep me from hiring more full-time employees because health care is a big expense to pay.”
While Bale feels lucky her business is not under the ACA, said the plan is not a “fix-all.” She understands the difficulty facing other businesses.
“They may make cutbacks in other areas like raises or promotions or vacation time and things like that,” Bale said. “[If] their health care expense is going to go up tremendously because they have to provide health care for their full-time employees now, they’re going to find a way to pay for it and it’ll mean they’re going to make cuts more than likely in other areas.”
An employee at The Shack, Bale’s daughter junior Shelby Wilhelm, falters to understand the reasoning behind the ACA. While she is still under her parent’s insurance, she thinks she would get her own health insurance after age 26, instead of relying on her employer.
“Health insurance is a good thing to have, but it should be an independent thing,” Wilhelm said. “It shouldn’t be up to the employers to provide it. I feel it should be up to the employee to get health insurance.”
U.S. History and Government teacher Thomas Rakoczy is certain America needs health care reform, but doubts that the ACA is the answer.
“[If] you take a look at the history of the federal government, you’ll discover that every time we get our hands into an issue, we make more of a mess of it,” Rakoczy said. “And Obamacare, we’re not talking a small program. When it’s all said and done, it will be one of the largest government run programs in the United States history. It ends up costing the taxpayers more money in the long run.”
Though Rakoczy does not think it is important to know a great deal about Obamacare as a teacher, but he believes that government officials should have given the policies a more in-depth look.
“The actual bill itself was over a couple thousand pages in which by the way, should be noted not every member of congress took the time to read the bill,” Rakoczy said.
Rakoczy is not positive what affects the ACA may have on businesses, but does not believe that it will affect them positively.
“I’m not sure as to some of the details of the plan that may have an adverse effect on businesses because I’m not a businessman, but I know that [Obama has] already exempted some businesses from the plan,” Rakoczy said. “Some corporations have already been exempt from Obamacare, so that should tell you that it’s not necessarily good for business.”
Several gas stations are also unaffected by the ACA because they already provide health insurance. Although the gas station RJ’s Conoco does not come under the umbrella of the ACA, the General Manager of RJ’s Conoco, Dave Olsen, still considers the negative affect the ACA will have on other businesses.
“I would say that it is probably going to curtail hiring a small business that would want to hire full-time employees,” Olsen said. “They’re going to make it part time work and not increase hiring because every time they hire someone it’s going to cost them more.”
The ACA may not be the solution to America’s issues, especially for small businesses, but companies are making the best of what they have.
“I know that there are companies that are making changes that are finding other options for themselves and providing insurance for their employees because my husband works for a big company here in town so yes, they’re already sending us letters about another option for us and stuff like that,” Bale said. “Good companies, smart companies are looking at their options.”