The Affordable Care Act is a significant bill that was ratified into law in March 2010 The goal of this Act was to provide affordable and accessible healthcare for all Americans following an increase in healthcare costs, unique numbers of uninsured persons and high insurance premiums. This being the third three years old since the ratification of Obamacare, there has been scant research on what has transpired to date. The Affordable Care Act enforces taxes and fees on businesses of all dimensions which raises questions about the effect that the law has had on employment. The employer directive became operational January 1, 2015. A major concern for many businesses is the increased costs directly correlated to the Obama care (Reinstein & Churyk, 2013). These include, but are not limited to: high premiums charges under the Insurer Fee and Reinsurance Fee; high enrollments rates for employees who work over 29 hours; and the likelihood of reduction of permanent employment opportunities (Beronio, Glied, & Frank, 2014). With such a tight burden to meet the provisions of this law, many companies are weighing out whether providing employer-sponsored insurance plans is a rational business decision (Buchmueller, Carey, & Levy, 2013). Understanding the impact of the Act on businesses is thus very critical to explain which strategies employers should adopt or have adopted after employer mandate became effective.
Obamacare is having a significant effect on the business of all sizes across the country. Thus it is essential to gain an in-depth understanding of the extra costs sustained by organizations and what effect Obamacare is having on the decisions of staffing and staff benefit changes. This study will explore the specific charges, including the impact of the Patient-Centered Results Research Trust Fund fee and premium surges in line with the several expenses that are passed to policyholders by insurance providers (Cutler, 2015). Outside of the cost effect, employers are allegedly adjusting the benefits presented to their employees and, in some instances, jettisoning the eligibility for dependents or spouses to enroll in their employer-sponsored plan as a strategy of mitigating the cost. Obamacare has also significantly affected the job market by restraining the growth of full-time jobs. Employers are not being compelled to reduce employment, and some cases to hire temporary workforces in preference to full-time workforces, whenever they find themselves on the cusp of activating the employer 15 mandate necessitating that they offer insurance to all of their employees. Notwithstanding, employees choosing to waive coverage under their employer plan and registering in the plans provided through the insurance exchange are anticipated to be a consequence the law is having on the market (Patel, & West, 2013). The current study will evaluate changes strategies the Strategies that business are taking to meet the employer mandate under the Obamacare.
The quantitative research design is preferred for this study in preference to qualitative research methodology. By its nature, qualitative research design utilizes a small sample size which does not support generalization of conclusions. Whereas the qualitative research technique provides rich data, it can be problematic to determine the reliability and validity when using a small sample. Furthermore, qualitative data is frequently too much and hard to analyze and summarize which requires a lot of time-consuming for analysis — contrary, a quantitative research method very useful in generating factual and reliable data. Quantitative research is also widely preferred for generalization of conclusions as they rely on big sample size. Studying large, statistically representative samples is almost unfeasible in qualitative studies. Lastly, the statistical analysis related to quantitative studies are also suitable for figuring out techniques to maximize dependent variables based on independent variables. Nevertheless, qualitative studies have been faulted on being labor-intensive and time-consuming because they deal with large samples size and for requiring key experts in execution and data analysis. Never less, given the numerous benefits of quantitative methods, this study seeks to use this scientific methods to determine which strategies that business are taking to respond to the ever-changing regulatory environment and to meet the employer mandate under the Affordable Care Act.
Research Questions
Formulation of Research Hypotheses
Theoretical Framework
The researcher will use the pluralistic framework to guide this study. The pluralistic framework applies the integrated theory of policy change and draws from the socio-political, economic, and public health perspectives (Gallen, & Mulligan, 2017). The pluralist model is extensive than just collective protest and mass mobilization. It encompasses collective actions to catapult social change through institutional techniques to achieve social change. Institutions include both informal and formal and informal networks that impact and shape the health service delivery system. The collective actions include strikes, awareness and voting campaigns and social protest, (Mims, Pederson, & Gold, 2014).
In the pluralist framework, multiple players are allowed to participate in policy-making. The key players compete to influence policy. People’s opinions are considered vital and taken into consideration. The limitation of this model is its misalignment between health system outcomes and government-sponsored healthcare (Jost & Hall, 2012). According to Kim (2016), while this model empowers the users of healthcare services, it is narrow in that the state government is both the sponsor and assessor of health system outcomes. Owing to this, the pluralist framework curtails the role of private industries in the delivery of healthcare services. The chosen theoretical framework is considered necessary in expounding the study topic and will be applied to show the relationship that exists among the study variables. These relationships will be helpful to explain the causal mechanisms, the determinants of the studied phenomena and their association or lack thereof (Mims, Pederson, & Gold, 2014).
The researcher expects the findings of this study to be beneficial in various ways. First, it is expected to help in understanding the actual impact of Obamacare on the operations and profitability of businesses across the country. This results of this study are also expected to offer a baseline that offers information for future decision-making.
References
Beronio, K., Glied, S., & Frank, R. (2014). How the Affordable Care Act and Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act Greatly Expand Coverage of Behavioral Health Care. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 41(4), 410-428. doi:10.1007/s11414-014-9412-0
Buchmueller, T., Carey, C., & Levy, H. G. (2013). Will Employers Drop Health Insurance Coverage Because Of The Affordable Care Act? Health Affairs, 32(9), 1522-1530. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0526
Cutler, D. M. (2015). From the Affordable Care Act to Affordable Care. JAMA, 314(4), 337-357. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.7683
Gallen, T., & Mulligan, C. B. (2017). Wedges, Labor Market Behavior, and Health Insurance Coverage Under the Affordable Care Act. SSRN Electronic Journal, 8(3), 312-357. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3009764
Jost, T. S., & Hall, M. A. (2012). Self Insurance for Small Employers Under the Affordable Care Act: Federal and State Regulatory Options. SSRN Electronic Journal, 11(4), 7. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2070883
Kim, D. (2016). The Value of Health Insurance and Labor Supply: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act Dependent Coverage Mandate. SSRN Electronic Journal, 13(4), 23-98. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2785936
Mims, A. D., Pederson, J. C., & Gold, J. A. (2014). Healthcare Changes and the Affordable Care Act: A Physician Call to Action Quality Improvement Organizations. Healthcare Changes and the Affordable Care Act, 6(3), 13-31. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-09510-3_2
Patel, K. H., & West, M. (2013). Delivering on the Promise of the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act as a National Experiment, 4(6), 17-26. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-8351-9_3
Purushothama, G. (2015). Sampling and Data Collection. Nursing Research and Statistics, 9(6), 99-189. doi:10.5005/jp/books/12176_4
Reinstein, A., & Churyk, N. T. (2013). New financial statement reporting requirements for healthcare entities and insurers. Journal of Hospital Administration, 2(3), 102-196. doi:10.5430/jha.v2n3p21
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