Obamacare implementation delay no boon for hiring

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the largest nongovernment U.S. employer, said it is still evaluating the impact, if any, this would have, but small companies like Kerns Trucking Inc in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, are relieved to have another year. The company, which does not offer health insurance to its almost 70 workers, is trying to decide whether to do so or pay the penalty.

“It’s starting to come out now what some of the true costs are. They’re extremely high,” said Doug Prestwood, vice president of Kerns. “In our business, you have a plan before you implement something, but it’s like they voted this thing in and now they’re trying to write it.”

Many businesses, including restaurants and retailers, had complained that healthcare reform would burden them with red tape and additional expenses that would hamper hiring.

But many retail and restaurant workers already aren’t eligible because they work fewer than the 30-hour a week threshold.

Last year, Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants Inc, in a brief trial, hired more part-time workers to reduce health benefit costs. It quickly abandoned the effort after a consumer backlash. Papa John’s International Inc suffered a similar fate when its chief executive said he would make a similar move.

Questions around eligibility played a significant role in the delay, said Neil Trautwein, vice president and employee benefits policy counsel for the National Retail Federation.

“They figured out that employers weren’t ready, that the administration wasn’t ready and the individual state marketplaces were not ready,” Trautwein said.

(Corrects third-last paragraph to say Darden “hired more part-time workers” instead “making some workers part-time”)

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles, Jessica Wohl in Chicago, and Atossa Abrahamian, Madeline Will and Martinne Geller in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)

Article Appeared @http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/03/us-usa-healthcare-employers-idUSBRE96118H20130703

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