A recent House GOP vote to redefine full-time work under the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer mandate shows its complete disregard for U.S. workers, including those who don’t work a traditional 40-hour work week.
In an attempt to help business owners circumvent health care coverage for workers, House Republicans, along with 18 Democrats, voted to change the law’s definition of a full-time worker from 30 hours a week back to 40 hours a week. The ACA’s current employer mandate requires businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to insure their workers by 2016 or pay a fine.
A recent report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shows approximately one million people would lose their employer-provided health insurance and the number of uninsured Americans would climb by almost 500,000 if the House bill became law.
“The proposed legislation is yet another swipe at hardworking U.S. workers, their pay and overall well being,” said IAM General Secretary-Treasurer Robert Roach, Jr. “It also completely ignores workers such as flight attendants, pilots, reservation agents and on-call maintenance workers, who don’t fall under your traditional 9-to-5, 40-hour work schedule.”
The 40-hour work week vote marks the 55th attempt by House Republicans to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.
Experts agree the bill has little hope for consideration in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
