A friend of mine works in a big law firm where attorneys commonly charge $1000 per hour. These are among the best legal minds in the country, but Obamacare has at least some of them stumped. Here’s an email that went out on a firm mailing list….
Client has employed his housekeeper and paid her through payroll over the last few years. Her insurance was cancelled because of Obamacare, and she was told that her employer (our client) has to provide her with insurance. Is there someone who is our Obamacare expert who can tell me why that is false? (Less than 50 employees? She doesn’t work 40 hours? I read the papers but that doesn’t mean I know the law!!)
This is false because employers with less than 50 employees are exempt. This is why i do not *have* to provide health insurance to my nanny.
You can wire $1000 to my Paypal using the submitted email at your convenience.
Your friend, regardless of his billing rate, is an idiot. This is NOT complicated. Less than 50 FTE employees means no employer mandate. Anyone who hasn’t been following this on Fox News would know this by now.
Hell, Google “employer exemptions ACA,” and this is the second hit:
http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-employer-mandate.php
Also, unless the client pays his housekeeper VERY well (unlikely), she’ll either be exempt from obtaining insurance herself (and probably eligible for Medicaid), or it will be subsidized almost entirely and will cover a LOT more than whatever “insurance” she had before.
Richard: It is quite possible that America’s top attorneys are idiots compared to the wise and intelligent bureaucrats and politicians in Washington, D.C. who spin out new rules on a continuous basis. However, that doesn’t mean that it is sensible for the central planners to make more and more complex rules. If they are doing the central planning for a country full of idiots, as you suggest, it would make more sense for them to design systems that are functional for the citizens that we actually have, rather than the citizens we would wish for.
Related: http://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2004/07/16/the-bell-curve-revisited/ , a book that talks about how unfriendly (due to increased complexity) modern American society is for people with low IQs.
Hey Richard,
Very good response. They only thing that stuck out was the “she’ll either be exempt from obtaining insurance herself (and probably eligible for Medicaid), or it will be subsidized almost entirely and will cover a LOT more than whatever “insurance” she had before.”
From the horror stories I have read (and only 1 person I know has even tried to join) that isn’t true unless she is way below the poverty level & older. It seems the younger generation, even with subsidies are being hammered.