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U.S. House Passes 40-Hour Workweek Amendment to ACA
No CommentsLast week the U.S. House of Representatives voted for a bill to amend the Affordable Care Act to define a full-time employee as one who works an average of 40 hours per week instead of 30. Republicans (and some Democrats) argue this will help businesses by requiring them to provide health insurance for fewer employees. Opponents, including most Democrats and unions, feel this gives businesses a greater incentive for employers cut all employees’ hours to approximately 39 per week, and then not have to provide any of them with health insurance.
The debate rages on and a similar bill will be addressed this week in the Senate. President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the bill if it passes in the Senate and arrives on his desk, and it’s unclear if Congress would have the votes to override that veto.
I’ve been reading a lot about this developing story this week. Here are some articles with different takes on the issue to help you understand the debate.
House Passes 40-Hour Workweek Threshold for PPACA. SHRM: “The House of Representatives passed a bill on Jan. 8, 2015, that would define a full-time worker under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) as one who works 40 hours a week, rather than the law’s current definition of a full-time employee working only 30 hours a week. The House’s Save American Workers Act of 2015, which is supported by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), has companion legislation in the Senate, the Forty Hours Is Full Time Act.”
Businesses Push for 40-Hour Workweek in Obamacare Definition. U.S. News & World Report: “The Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform law, requires large employers to provide health insurance for full-time employees or pay a penalty. It changes the definition of a full-time work week, however, from the traditional 40 hours a week to 30 hours a week so that more people can be covered. Critics say this could encourage employers to cut their employees’ workweek to under 30 hours.”
The GOP Bill to Define the 40-Hour Work Week Explained. NBC News: “Many of the unions oppose the measure, including the AFL-CIO because they say that weakening the employer mandate will deprive workers of both health benefits and hours. The AFL-CIO supports moving in the opposite direction and lowering the number of weekly hours to require health care to 20 per week in an attempt to further protect full-time employees from seeing any reduction in hours. ‘There has been frustration with the 30-hour threshold and with people losing hours,’ AFL-CIO health care lobbyist Tom Leibfried admits. ‘What labor would like is a stronger set of employer responsibility requirements.’”
Workweek Bill is First GOP Senate Test on Obamacare. Politico: “The bill is getting a new push in the Senate now. Co-sponsors Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana held a press conference Wednesday morning to highlight their ‘Forty Hours is Fulltime Act.’ Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia supports it as well. If those two Democrats plus all 54 Republican senators vote for the measure, they need four more Democrats, although the veto hammer looms even then.”
Latest GOP Obamacare Bill Could Add $53 Billion To Deficit, CBO Says. The Huffington Post: “The Congressional Budget Office “score” of the bill released Wednesday suggested the shift proposed by the bill could actually worsen the healthcare situation, even as it raises costs to taxpayers. According to the analysis, about 1 million workers would lose their employer-based health care coverage because businesses would have even more incentive to cut hours than they do now. That’s because vastly more Americans work 40 or more hours a week than those who work just over 30.”
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