Op-Eds

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that President Obama’s health care law is failing miserably – well before its implementation.

Earlier in July, the Administration announced they would delay the employer mandate for big business. While the acknowledgment of this law’s problems is welcome, it is irresponsible to leave families and small business owners to face the law’s individual mandate.

To prevent this train wreck from hitting families and small businesses, I have joined with my colleagues in the House to support two pieces of legislation that would delay these crushing mandates.

H.R. 2667, the “Authority for Mandate Delay Act,” would give large employers a reprieve from compliance with Obamacare’s employer mandate until 2015. H.R. 2668, the “Fairness for American Families Act,” would grant individuals the same delay that the Administration gave employers to comply with the mandate. Together, both pieces of legislation will ensure that Obamacare’s sweeping mandates do not cripple families, businesses and our economy.

The warning siren, which has long been sounding, is now echoing loud enough for even some of President Obama’s strongest allies to hear. A letter coming from three of the nation’s largest unions (International Brotherhood of Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and UNITE-HERE) shared compelling concerns about the underlying premises of the law and the devastating impact it will have on our nation’s workers.

According to Forbes, the business leaders wrote that they “can no longer stand silent in the face of elements of the Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans.” They also point out that the president’s pledge of, “If you like the health plans you have now, you can keep them,” is hollow without changes to the law.

Unfortunately, this did not come as a surprise. We’ve known for a long time that this complex and hurried attempt at health care reform would result in a barrage of problems for both employers and their employees. The labor leaders also warned that the law encourages employers to shift their employees to part-time status, thus giving them less opportunity for work while losing their health care benefits. This move also pushes individuals toward the state-wide exchanges, which a recent GAO report warned might not be ready to open on schedule this October.

This one-size-fits-all attempt to overhaul our nation’s health care system was disastrous and the American people will be left to suffer the consequences. We should instead focus on improving access to quality, affordable health care.

The sweeping health care law is clearly not ready for primetime. The more we hear about the law’s implementation, the more troubling it is. We need a permanent delay.