Obamacare's relentless march to full-fledged introduction in 2014 demonstrates that, for all its good intentions, it will make the health care system more confusing (see above), costly and contentious. It won't control health spending -- the system's main problem -- and will weaken job creation.
There is incentive for companies not to exceed 50 full-time workers, stifling job creation.
Oh, and it gets worse. Many people who do work will be able to look forward both to no health insurance and a reduction in pay. Why? Because in the real world, employers will want to avoid the high price tag for having more full time employees:
Employers have a huge incentive to hold workers under the 30-hour weekly threshold. The requirement to provide insurance above that acts as a steep employment tax. Companies will try to minimize the tax. The most vulnerable workers are the poorest and least skilled who can be most easily replaced and for whom insurance costs loom largest. Indeed, the adjustment has already started.
The problem with the idea that everything can be regulated is that those regulations that try to defy reality assume composite people simply do what the rule writers intend and don't try to maximize their own benefits (or minimize their own problems) under the rules as written. But real people behave differently than composite people.
Obamacare is foolish. But the belief that people can write and run something like Obamacare successfully is the really foolish part.
