The new Republican-led Congress has promised a vote on a full repeal of Obamacare, but it looks like they are now focusing their attention on changes to the law that might actually get passed.
One of the biggest of these changes would be the restoration of the 40-hour work week.
Under the healthcare law, large employers must provide insurance to employees working full time or face a penalty. But right now Obamacare defines full-time work as 30 hours per week.
Both the Senate and the House are expected to take a vote to up that threshold this week, The Hill reported.
The White House said Tuesday that it would veto this change, but this is one issue where Republicans and Democrats could possibly come together to override President Obama’s pen.
Supporters of the bill see it as a jobs issue. Arguing that workers are getting cut below 30 hours a week so that they qualify as part time and don’t have to have company-provided insurance right now, they say the increased hour work week would mean that even part time workers could pull in more hours on the job. It would also allow businesses to qualify workers as full time will getting the full 40 hours of work from them.
“If the workweek is defined as 30 hours instead of the traditional 40 hours, we will be inclined to hire more people part time rather than at the full-time wages they’d prefer to receive,” Fargo, N.D.-based retail chain owner Ciara Stockeland wrote in an op-ed over the holiday recess. “No one wins, and the economy is quickly affected.”
“This is a jobs issue, not a political issue,” Retail Industry Leaders Association Vice President of Government Affairs Christine Pollack said in a statement. “Restoring the 40-hour work week is an important step toward protecting American jobs.”
They face opposition from the far left, specifically the AFL-CIO.
The AFL-CIO is sending its own letter to Capitol Hill this week in opposition to the legislation, according to The Hill.
“There has been an ongoing erosion of employer-based coverage over the last 10 years, and it was an important part of the Affordable Care Act,” Tom Leibfried, a healthcare lobbyist at the AFL-CIO, told the publication.
Basically, they are concerned that doing away with the 30-hour work week might mean the Obama administration would have to find a way to replace millions of dollars in penalties collected from employers, a major way in which Obamacare is funded.
“This whole thing was built on individuals getting coverage, businesses pitching in for their employees an the government stepping in for people who needed help,” Leibfried said. “That framework is undermined if you take out the employer responsibility requirement.”
