Hillary Clinton Hints Opposition to Obamacare Employer Mandate

December 17th, 2015

With the Cadillac Tax dead, Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton now seems to be setting her sights on another unpopular aspect of the law, the Employer Mandate. Recall that in 2013, conservatives argued that the employer mandate was shifting full-time workers into part-time employment, as companies attempted to avoid the penalty. At the time, the Politifacts of the world charged that these claims were half true or untrue, and were unsubstantiated claims against Obamacare.

Fast-forward two years, and Hillary Clinton has now joined the fray.

At a town hall meeting in Iowa City, Iowa Hillary Clinton was asked by a supporter about companies moving to a mostly part-time workforce and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Clinton said that companies are going to a mostly part-time workforce because of restrictions in Obamacare.

“Well that’s why they’re going to part-time. That and the Affordable Care Act. You know, we’ve got to change that because we have built in some unfortunate incentives that discourage full-time employment,” Clinton said. …

At the town hall, Clinton said that employers feel that, if an employee does not work 40 hours a week, they are not entitled to the benefits that a full-time employee receives.

“There is a disincentive in our system that we need to deal with, and I really worry about it because there is a trend to try and move more and more people into part-time work,” Clinton said. “And sometimes you want to work part-time, it fits into your family, it fits into your life obligations, but sometimes you want to work full-time but you can’t get a full-time job. So I want to look at all the employment rules.”

The employer mandate has never fully gone into effect. In light of Clinton’s announcement, I don’t expect it to ever be fully implemented. Rather, it will be unceremoniously delayed, ad infinitum, like the cadillac tax.