Employer healthcare cost increases at fifteen year low. Cause cited is Obamacare.

Courtesy of Forbes:  

U.S. employers this year face their “smallest increases in health care costs in 15 years,” according to a new survey showing the latest evidence of health inflation slowing. 

Towers Watson (TW), an employee benefits consulting firm and the National Business Group on Health, an association of large employers, said the cost of providing employer-sponsored benefits will rise 4.4 percent this year. Employer costs, which were $9,157 last year, are projected to rise to $9,560 in 2014. 

The trend comes as employers move to higher deductible health care plans that make workers think twice about choosing expensive tests and procedures, forcing employees to become better health care shoppers. Employers are also installing additional new strategies to encourage wellness activities such as financial incentives to stop smoking. 

“To find more effective ways to manage health costs, many employers are focusing on reshaping their health strategy for the next three to five years,” said Towers Watson senior health care consultant Ron Fontanetta of the survey of 595 large U.S. employers that have more than 11 million full-time workers, including 7.8 million enrolled in health benefits. 

Most respondents to the survey are “recalibrating their health strategy” with 18 percent having either adopted a new strategy or updated an existing one, the Towers Watson executive summary of the report said. Another 57 percent of respondents are “in process,” the summary added. 

Two in five respondents cite the Affordable Care Act as the primary driver of their health care strategy. 

Still, the survey shows little evidence that these large employers will drop coverage for their workers and send employees to the public exchanges under the health law to buy insurance. The vast majority, or 95 percent, of respondents said subsidizing health care coverage is a “very important” part of their benefits packages for active employees.

So to sum up, employer health care costs are rising at the slowest rate in fifteen years, employees are becoming better health care shoppers and making better choices concerning their health, and despite Republican propaganda employers have no intention of dropping employee health care plans.

And don't forget, this is being reported in Forbes Magazine, which is not exactly known for their cheerleading on behalf of Obamacare.

Time for your checkup Mr. President.

Another anti-Obamacare myth bites the dust.

Courtesy of Forbes:  

For those committed to destroying the Affordable Care act by any means possible, who can blame them for seeking to misdirect based on using only a small part of the data as it pertains to employment when telling the full story blows up the entire meme? Such a claim is, after all, ear candy for an audience looking for any reason to hate the law, even if they don’t quite know why they so are so displeased. 

The problem, however, is that this popular line of attack comes with a rather significant flaw—the claim is provably false. 

A more careful review of the latest BLS jobs report out last week—a review in which the anti-Obamacare forces do not want you to engage in—reveals that while we do, indeed, currently have 27 million part-time workers in the economy, only 8 million of these people are working part-time because they cannot find a full-time job. 

That means that 19 million Americans are working part-time because that is all the work they desire to have. 

What’s more, not only does the September jobs report reveal that the number of part-timers wishing for full-time work showed no increase when compared to the previous month’s numbers, the report provides a piece of data far more important— 

In September of 2012, the number of part-timers seeking full-time work comprised 6 percent of the workforce. One year later, the September jobs report reveals that the number has shrunk to 5.5 percent.

This idea that the Affordable Care Act is inspiring employers to hire part time workers over full time workers is one of the major talking points. So recognizing that it is based on a misrepresentation of the facts is something that EVERY mainstream journalist should do but doesn't.

These GOP "facts" require darkness and loads of bullshit to grow, the best way to fight them is to shine a light on them and watch them wither away.