Health Care Reform's Impact on Employment Issues

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("PPACA") will impact every citizen in a variety of ways and challenge employers to meet its requirements. It remains to be seen whether the PPACA will survive the multiple lawsuits already filed against it and the elections coming this November. As currently written, however, beginning in 2014 the PPACA will require employers who employ as few as fifty employees to provide federally approved health insurance or pay a fine. While the PPACA imposes multiple health insurance changes affecting every citizen, this article highlights a few broad points every business should be aware of.

Among many other issues of concern to businesses, the PPACA will most likely lead to an increase in discrimination lawsuits. Unfounded discrimination claims are already a constant concern. Unfortunately, the PPACA creates a new protected class, the poor, who will sue employers at every opportunity when they are subject to adverse employment actions.
This problem has been created because Congress decided that certain employees should be more costly to employ than others. Employers will be required to pay increased fines for employees who elect to receive premium subsidies from the government. Whether a person qualifies to receive these subsidies will depend upon their income or family income, if applicable. This will result in circumstances where it becomes more costly to employ a person if their spouse loses his or her job, thus lowering their family income. Because this presents an obvious disincentive to hire such individiuals, the new law provides that taking an adverse employment action against them, because of their economic status, is unlawful discrimination. This results in an entirely new class of workers that can, and very likely will file discrimination claims based upon their individual or family income level.
As a result, employers are further encouraged to ensure that employment decisions are consistent. Consistency is no easy task and requires an evaluation of the many and varied relationships within each workplace. Congress' foray into health care has increased the need to maintain constant vigilance in this area...

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This article was written by L. Kyle Ferguson