By Michael Mccune: The Rant (government auditor for 16 years) - Four Years After Passage, Obamacare Short of Supporters - (( to Have Michael send you the Rant to your Email contact Him Here (( memccunewyo@yahoo.com ))

 Four Years After Passage, Obamacare Short of Supporters

The Patient Affordable Health Care Act is just six months away from impacting the U.S. economy.

 

Obama loyalists still stoutly maintain there will be no cost increase because "Obama said so." Those of the fringe of making a choice are beginning to lean heavily against the Act while those on the conservative side have been against this abomination since its inception.

 

Most Americans knew they were in trouble when Nancy Pelosi gave her infamous "We have to pass the bill before we can find out what exciting things are in it" speech. But as more details are coming out there is one sector of the economic engine that is revving up, positively, simply because of Obamacare.

 

As has been reported by the Rant in the past, of the 143 million jobs listed by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics at the end of 2012, only 101 were full-time with 42 million classified as temporary or part-time. Obamacare is going to worsen that percentage.

 

The temp agencies are licking their chops in anticipation of the enactment of the program. It means more companies will be hiring part-time employees to avoid the penalties for full-time employees imposed by the Act's penalty clauses.

 

A new Gallup poll compiled in the last week of June shows 42 percent of Americans believe Obamacare will make their health care worse while 22 percent said the law will make it better.

 

The poll doesn't make much sense. Maybe the 36% who didn't go either way are already beyond medical assistance or didn't vote for their own situation but looked as the community as a whole because in that category 47% said Obamacare will make the nation's health system worse while 34% said it would improve the area.

 

But the temporary market is not going along with the general malaise sweeping the country. 

 

Companies on the 50-employee bubble will cut back to make sure they are well under the limit. But they  still need to get their normal work done, so the plan--in most cases--is to hire enough part-time help to make up the difference.

 

The BLS will love that as, by the way it counts employment, the unemployment rate will be dropping rapidly and the nation will be 'creating' jobs. But the temp agencies like Robert Half International are particularly excited by the temp market being created since it supplies workers to small and medium sized companies who are particularly at risk to the penalties imposed by Obamacare.

 

Also currently on the upswing are the insurance and pharmaceutical who are anticipating a surge in demand from tens of millions of new product buyers. But this runs against human nature.

 

The fact Obamacare is not making much headway among younger people is because they generally tend to be more healthy than the very young or aging parts of society. They are showing a reluctance to get into the medically-insured aspect of life until human frailty forces them to do so. 

 

This is something the backers of Obamacare had not anticipated. It is also going to put an even larger burden on those participating because the pool of people using it are going to be the most at risk--so costs are suddenly going up as projected by the CBO and GAO.

 

(The Rant, since the proposal was first launched in Congress has been predicting an additional $1 trillion in the U.S. budget annually and not the $1 trillion over 10 years as originally estimated. Now the CBO and GAO numbers are coming closer and closer to the Rant's position.)

 

But the most damaging aspect to Obamacare is it suddenly needs financial support from "Organizing for Action", a group created from Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. This group is flooding cable TV with ads in an effort to get more support for the bill. It has even enlisted the help of nearly 17,000 librarians across the country to help promote the good from Obamacare.

 

Gallup had a most enlightening comment on its poll. "Americans remain wary of the law and what kind of impact it will have on their family situation. Those without insurance--those most likely to benefit from the new law--are slightly more likely to see a positive result, but even they are not ardent supporters."

 

Since the bill is still being written is it fair to assert there will be even more restrictions on the companies forced to provide health care? Is it fair to assume there will be even more pressure put on a weak economy? Is it fair to ask who will pay for the bills and how those bills will be paid when the unemployed, because of Obamacare, become sick?

 

The Patient Affordable Health Care Act is anything but affordable. That is the only certain fact America can count on.

 

"I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man."--Thomas Jefferson