Markos Moulitsas, who founded the Daily Kos and Vox Media, responds to House Speaker Boehner’s remark that the ACA makes it harder to hire new employees:
So ask me, “Has Obamacare has made it harder for you to hire employees?” And the answer is “what the fuck are you talking about? Of course not!” I mean, the whole concept is patently ridiculous. Why would the law make it harder? Note that Boehner doesn’t even bother trying to explain why.”
What would be even better?
Universal health care. Take away my healthcare costs at Daily Kos, and I save over $400,000 per year. That’s what, four-six employees? I could use those extra employees, too. (With nearly 10 times the employees at Vox Media, I can’t imagine how many millions that company would save with universal health care!)
Here’s the interesting part:
So what is hurting my ability to hire more people? Not Obamacare, which if anything is actually helping because it has lowered the annual increase in insurance premiums. Perhaps that’s why not a single business group filed an amicus brief in support of the King v. Burwell Supreme Court case challenging the law.
I recall, many years ago (close to 25), reading that the major car manufacturers also supported universal health care (I regret I cannot provide a source on that) for the same reasons. It’s a bit of a reminder that the entities that benefit from the free market rarely actually support it completely, especially if they are the entrenched incumbents.
All that said, one must keep in mind that businesses often speak from the narrowest of interests. I remain neutral on the subject of universal health care; I wish I had the time to sit down and read Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations or some other authority on free markets and see if medicine really should be considered to qualify as a good candidate for a free market, or if the arbitrariness of disease, and the extreme importance of good health, qualifies it for government interference….
And not everybody agrees. The Tea Party Patriots site certainly sees doom & gloom:
Emergency room visits up, despite Obamacare
“Too many Americans get care in emergency rooms instead of doctors offices — and expanded health coverage is making the problem worse rather than fixing it. Three in four emergency room doctors said patient visits have increased since the Affordable Care Act’s requirement to have health insurance went into effect, in an email survey released Monday by the American College of Emergency Physicians. That’s not the news some healthcare advocates had hoped for. The thought was that by expanding health coverage to more people, they would get their ailments treated earlier by primary care doctors and could avoid visiting emergency rooms, which already struggle with an overload of patients.
… which is a quote from the Washington Examiner. They seem to act as a aggregator on anti-ACA news. But this does serve to reinforce the idea that businessmen, even lefties like Kos, can put on blinders and see only what they wish to see. As ever, a well-done survey will leave an entertaining story such as Kos’ in the dust for those of us who value facts over emotion.
