A Republican bill to change ObamaCare’s definition of full-time work to 40 hours would increase the deficit by $74 billion over 10 years and cause 1 million people to lose their work-based insurance, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released Tuesday.
{mosads}The Save American Workers Act, proposed by Rep. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and touted by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) as a top legislative priority for Republicans, would also increase the number of uninsured by 500,000, and push about another 500,000 onto Medicaid or ObamaCare, the report found.
House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) called the bill “reckless” in a statement and said it would shift more people into publicly funded healthcare.
“This estimate reveals how dangerous the Affordable Care Act repeal agenda is to the American people,” Levin said. “By essentially eliminating any requirement for businesses to contribute to the cost of health coverage, Republicans have just embraced a proposal to put wages and benefits at risk for a million or more hard-working Americans, while substantially increasing the deficit.”
ObamaCare requires employers to offer health plans to workers if they have 50 or more full-time employees and defines full-time as anyone working 30 or more hours a week.
Republicans argue this incentivizes companies to limit employee hours to 29 or fewer to maintain a staff of fewer than 50 full-time workers.
Cantor has said House Republicans will consider the bill in March.