The bungled Obamacare (Affordable Care Act, or ACA) rollout keeps setting out time bombs, the media report. A study by Duke University faculty and CFO magazine predicts that Obamacare will continue to destroy jobs in the new year, WRAL reports. Campbell Harvey, of the Fuqua School of Business, said, “The impact on the real economy is startling. Nearly one-third of firms may either terminate employees or hire fewer people in the future as a direct result of ACA.”
But of course. The law is so complex it creates uncertainty, and it penalizes many companies for hiring people, or employing them for more than 30 hours a week. With the economy shaky anyway, that spells bad news for workers.
Meanwhile, Cato Institute expert Michael Tanner recently wrote,
The good news, if you want to call it that, is that roughly 1.6 million Americans have enrolled in ObamaCare so far. The not-so-good news is that 1.46 million of them actually signed up for Medicaid. If that trend continues, it could bankrupt both federal and state governments.
In short, so far Obamacare is just shuttling people on to Medicaid, making them dependent on a program that often provides inferior care. And, as Tanner notes, how long will it be before cash-strapped Washington begins dumping more of the costs on the states?
One small but telling example right there: North Carolina tobacco farmers may find their final Tobacco Buyout Payment was less than was expected. The last check in the decade-long program may be cut by federal sequestration cuts, News14 reported.
Uncle Sam is broke, broke, broke. Other deals will be broken, too. Washington will be cutting spending, just because it’s out of money.
That includes Medicaid funding. Our liberal friends say the federal government will pay for Medicaid expansion. I bet Congress reneges on that deal. It would be too easy for Congress to say, “Why don’t you states pay more for Medicaid?”
That would leave North Carolina stuck with the tab, and stuck with a Medicaid program that is deteriorating before our eyes. North Carolina is wise to stay as far away from expanding Medicaid, at least until Obamacare is repealed and real reforms can be put in place.
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