Sometimes the Media gets it right but way too often they pad the numbers for great political theatre to get people talking. Take for instance the report of one of Pres O's favorite medical facilities, the Cleveland Clinic.
It’s been reported that because of the Affordable Care Act that the Cleveland Clinic, a massive 4,400 bed hospital system that stretches operations from Cleveland, Ohio to Miami Florida, announced it will be laying off some 3,000 employees.
However this report is over dramatized as the Cleveland Clinic actually stated that they are streamlining many services and departments that will not impact employees and those "3,000 employees" reported to be laid off are employees eligible for voluntary early retirement.
This sounds very familiar, as the move to push employees eligible for early retirement is no different than that of some States that recently forced early retirement on State Union Employees from 2009 to 2012, wouldn't you agree Ohio Gov Kasich?
Now I do recall many in so-called Media praising those Governors for their action as taxpayers pay those Union salaries. But isn’t one of the issues of high Health Care costs that of expensive overhead?
Why praise one form of lay-off or early retirement over another?
But the misrepresentation of the Cleveland Clinic announcement is only one in a few of poor Media reporting, as even my own employer made one of the “lay-off” Affordable Care Act lists during the summer of 2012.
I work for a worldwide company (I will not state their name) and it was reported that my company was laying-off employees due to Affordable Care Act. That couldn't be further from the truth as the "lay-off" in question was due to a worldwide re-organization as a portion of the company was sold. There was no need to have excessive employees in Management, Sales, Logistics, and so on. So a corporate stream line was set in place, not because of the Affordable Care Act.
It doesn’t matter how many credits and/or deductions Congress creates to get business to hire, they will not hire unless they need bodies. And business will not give benefits if it is not warranted, so if the Affordable Care Act states a fine will be imposed if business does not offer health insurance, well it’s cheaper for business to take the $2k-$3k “fine” then pay an individual the average American median income of $51k + benefits.
Yes, I understand it’s the principle of Government imposing law and fines upon business. I agree, it’s wrong, as business shouldn’t be forced to give benefits, be it health insurance to retirement to any employee unless the business exercises that option.
But what does the Affordable Care Act have to do with Immigration?
It has been reported since the beginning of 2013 and it has been my understanding that under the Affordable Care Act a business with fewer than 50 employees does not have to offer/buy health insurance for their employees. However those business’ with 50 or more employees has to either provide a form of health insurance or pay a “fine” between $2k to $3k for employees that buy into one of the various health insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act.
Also consider that the majority of legislation is written and/or driven by business lobbyists, so while the majority of business have been announcing lay-offs due to the Affordable Care Act, many of them are also lobbying for a new Immigration law to hire temporary visa or blue card holding workers at a cheaper labor rate while not having to offer a single benefit as they are not eligible for the health insurance exchange.
So in layman terms, the Affordable Care Act is the enabling scapegoat for business to hire a new immigrant over an American citizen. And for Corporate America, everyone knows that cheaper labor equates to a higher profit margin which leads to a sweet payout on the stock options.
So who does one hate or point a crooked finger at: Our ineffective Congress or our inept President or Corporate America?
