From CNS News:
More than one in five businesses (21%) are considering dropping employee health insurance due to Obamacare, and 59% are considering changing the coverage they offer, a new industry survey shows.
Two-thirds (67%) of small businesses and manufacturers say Obamacare will increase their health care costs, the survey of owners and top decision-makers by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) shows.
Of those providing health insurance to their employees, 38% fear Obamacare will cause them increase the amount employees have to pay for coverage.
Small business owners and manufacturers see Obamacare as one of the most daunting problems facing their businesses today. Fully 56% rate Obamacare a major challenge, well above other issues like regulatory costs (36%), energy costs (39%) – and more than twice the threat of foreign competition (25%).
The cost of health care is the top problem facing small businesses today, a separate 2012 NFIB survey of small business concerns shows, with 52.3% of small businesses rating rising health care costs the most “critical” problem today.
NFIB analysis also shows that Obamacare’s health insurance tax (HIT) could cost up to a quarter million (249,000) private sector jobs.
There is a reason why we have a 10.5% unemployment rate if we count people who have given up on looking for a job as unemployed. Businesses don’t like the policies of this President, and they are going to wait him out.
WINTERY KNIGHT 
You might want to listen to some of the great business advice I gave you before – companies will only hire if they have the need to do so. If sales are declining they wont hire. If sales are increasing but are manageable by the current staff they won’t hire. They only hire if they need new staff to handle increasing sales…and no sane company will not hire if it means increased profits. So you’re argument is a bit of a red herring.
Additionally, according to a business week article and something I’ve argued with you before:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-28/obamacares-here-to-stay-dot-what-do-business-leaders-do-now
many small businesses like the personal mandate – I know I do. I’m about to start hiring some people for my business and I’m not even gonna deal with health insurance – why? It’s not my company’s focus – why would I care if john can’t get it up or Mary has bad cramps – it’s not my company’s job to be their personal welfare provider nor do I have the time or expertise (nor the funds to buy the expertise) to decide which policy will be the best. Let them buy it.
Better yet, why don’t we stop kidding ourselves that allowing individual monopolies by profit driven, expense cutting companies motivated to deny care is the best method of ensuring a healthy populace. You might want to read up on the history of the company provided health plan – it only started post-WW II and it’s a huge drain on company expenses.
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During my orientation for my work, the lady told us that we could work 49 hours before she had to start buying us health insurance. Then she told us not to try it becaus she wasn’t going to pay for anybody’s health insurance. So anyone who works us to 50 might just find themselves in trouble. Not me. I can’t work more than 19 hours anyway.
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Jerry,
You are obviously missing the point of the piece to which WK links. It isn’t a matter of need to hire, but rather, when the need to hire exists, does the impending threat of Obamacare impact the decision to hire. The stats provided in the article suggest that it does indeed have a negative impact on hiring decisions by many companies.
Two other points for you:
-If you choose not to provide health insurance to your employees, good for you. I agree that it is not the job of any company to do so. However, most people these days still consider insurance as part of the compensation they expect for giving a part of their lives to any company.
-You do not understand health insurance if you believe they are motivated to deny care. Or perhaps you’re referring to health care providers (doctors, hospitals, etc) All companies, even those that provide insurance or health care, have profit as part of their reason for existing, if not a major reason. I would assume profit is important for you and your business. I guess you expect insurers and providers to operate for free.
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Not for free no, but not for profit is how I would expect them to operate, yes. Health insurance is designed to help sick people get better (and to keep healthy people healthy) – goals that are contradictory in an expensive medical landscape when profits are the motivating concern for those deciding whether you get your treatment of not.
But I do understand Wintery’s post and I believe my response showed that – no amount of regulation or tax will stop people from hiring if they can still make money doing so. As the businessweek.com article pointed out, businesses finally have an alternative and a scapegoat – “I can’t give you insurance because of obama care but there are now decent alternatives for you…” – you get my point. Business’s can now start to deny an expense unrelated to their core mission without looking like the bad guy.
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First, how dare you expect anyone to run a business for no profit. Why don’t you run yours that way first.
You are obviously oblivious to how insurance companies work. They are not in business to “help sick people get better” OR to help healthy people stay healthy. They are in business to make a profit just like you are, except that their business is to insure against unexpected health situations. It is up to the insurance consumer to do what they can to live healthy lives. If all people with insurance policies are sick all the time, it won’t matter who is doing the insuring. Costs will rise in order to pay for the health care required.
What’s more, the stated purpose of Obamacare was to reduce costs and cover everyone. The two do not go together as it is impossible to reduce costs while covering more people.
Furthermore, the article to which WK linked contradicts yours regarding the benefits to business of Obamacare. These employers are stating that hiring will be difficult when faced with the demands of Obamacare. Are they lying? Of course businesses will hire if they can do so and still make money. But so many stories have been published pointing to the fact that the legislation will burden them such that hiring will be difficult.
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You said: “…it is impWhat’s more, the stated purpose of Obamacare was to reduce costs and cover everyone. The two do not go together as ossible to reduce costs while covering more people. ” – the concept is called economies of scale and it’s a pretty proven technique (obviously there are always exceptions…).
I do like your very American sentiment of “how dare you think differently than me” – our fore fathers would be so proud of you! As you’re obviously not up for any type of debate, I will stop and I am sorry to have offended your obviously fragile world view!
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Maybe food stores should not operate for profit since people need to eat food? Maybe people who build houses should not build them for profit since people need housing? Etc. Etc. Your logic is weak.
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People don’t need housing, it’s just nicer than sitting in the rain and we definitely don’t need the housing most Americans hae – so it’s a very poor analogy. Additionally, most food stores sell so much more than food, so yet another bad analogy…but you did hit on something – food is so important that it’s one of the few things our government doesn’t tax. Food is so important, hat 4 years ago when several countries had a spike in food prices, 30+ countries had food riots and our government/military got very concerned and I bet you don’t even know why…
But yes, there are plenty of areas that shouldn’t be for profit as the typical routes taken by many of todays mega-corps serve only to destabilize society, otherwise we wouldn’t have to worry about food riots toppling the weak governments of the countries that supply so many of the raw materials our consumerism requires to fuel our fractional reserve banking system – a system that requires debt to grow…
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