07 Nov 2013 Papa John Was Right About the Impact of ObamaCare, Says National Center for Public Policy Research
“More and more businesses will reduce employee hours as January 2015, when the employer mandate goes into effect, approaches,” says National Center’s Dr. David Hogberg
Washington, D.C. – “The CEO of Papa John’s Pizza, John Schnatter, received immense criticism from the political left last November, but the last year has proven him correct,” says Dr. David Hogberg, health care expert and author of a new article, published today, illustrating the dramatic impact ObamaCare is having on workers’ hours.
Dr. Hogberg, senior fellow for health care policy at the National Center For Public Policy Research, is available to offer comments for reporters and radio hosts on the employer mandate and other aspects of ObamaCare.
There are “363 employers that includes 75 private businesses that have reduced hours in response to Obamacare. Astoundingly the other 288 are government institutions such as school districts and state universities,” Dr. Hogberg writes today in an American Spectator article entitled “Papa John Was Right.”
Under ObamaCare’s employer mandate companies with 50 or more full-time employees — “full time” defined as 30 hours a week or more — must provide their workers with health insurance or pay a hefty fine.
On November 7, 2012, the Naples Daily News reported John Schnatter responding to a question about whether ObamaCare would cause Papa John’s franchise owners to reduce their employees’ work hours, “That’s probably what’s going to happen. It’s common sense. That’s what I call lose-lose.”
The outrage from the political left was fast and furious. Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and Rick Ungar, among others, condemned Schnatter, while others on the left called for a boycott of Papa John’s.
“A year later the evidence is in, and Schnatter was right and the left was wrong,” said Dr. Hogberg. “Unfortunately, it is common sense. Force companies to give insurance to full-time workers and they will turn them into part time workers.”
Dr. Hogberg contends the Obama Administration’s July decision to suspend the employer mandate until 2015 has temporarily slowed the number of employers reducing work hours. “Expect more employers to reduce worker hours as January 2015 approaches,” Dr. Hogberg said.
The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from individuals, less than four percent from foundations, and less than two percent from corporations. It receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 96,000 active recent contributors. Papa John’s is not a contributor.
Contributions to The National Center are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.
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