Another underreported consequence of Obamacare: Full-time workers will voluntarily start working fewer hours and spend more time doing what they want to do, because they won't be locked on a job simply because their employer offers affordable healthcare. If all goes right it should create an entrepreneurial boom; Obamacare as job creator rather than job killer:
From Business Insider:
Millions Of Workers May Choose To Go Part-Time Once Obamacare Kicks Inhttp://finance.yahoo.com/...The perk that is usually offered only to full-time employees — affordable health care — will now be offered to part-time employees. As a result, millions of workers who are working full-time may choose to work part-time instead, University of Chicago economics professor Casey Mulligan said in a recent paper published with the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Workers who choose to reduce their own hours may end up faring better financially by paying lower premiums offered to part-time rs through government exchanges ra ther than working a few more hours and purchasing health care through an employer, s aid Mulligan.
"Moving from full-time employment to part-time employment will trigger generous assistance with health premiums and out-of-pocket expenses that can offset much of the income lost due to reduced work hours," said Mulligan. Under the health-care reform, the cost of insurance will be subsidized depending on your income.
In a leaked internal email that was published in The Washington Post , a Trader Joe exec wrote that one employee — a single mom with one child — who makes $18 per hour and works around 25 hours per week, currently pays $166.50 per month for her health-care plan purchased through the company. When the ACA plans kick in next year, this employee will be able to purchase an "almost identical" plan for $69.59 per month, meaning she will save about $1,175 annually on health care.
Mulligan said the reduced hours will allow workers to have more leisure time and lower work-related costs such as child-care, since working less enables part-timers to spend more time with their children instead of paying for a nanny or day-care service.