Last week, a controversial McKinsey & Company report generated quite a stir with a survey about the Affordable Care Act. According to the study, nearly a third of American businesses will stop offering health coverage to their employees as a result of the new reform law.
Additional analysis showed the study is quite literally unbelievable, but as reader R.P. noted via email, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) doesn’t appear to care.
Yesterday, the Republican leader issued a “Speaker Alert,” which touted the dubious McKinsey results.
A survey by McKinsey & Company says businesses planning for the onslaught of ObamaCare taxes, mandates, regulations, and penalties have two choices: stop offering health care for their employees, or eliminate full-time jobs and keep wages low.
It then referred readers to this separate piece from the House Speaker’s office.
The President’s promise that “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” has once again been proven false because ObamaCare is forcing job creators to stop offering health coverage. As businesses begin planning for the onslaught of ObamaCare taxes, mandates, regulations, and penalties coming down the pike, many are left with two untenable choices: stop offering health care for their employees, or eliminate full-time jobs and keep wages low. According to a survey released yesterday by McKinsey & Company: 30 percent of employers — and 28 percent of large employers — “will definitely or probably stop offering” coverage after 2014.
As a substantive matter, this analysis from Boehner’s office just doesn’t make sense. But under the circumstances — the Speaker doesn’t generally care for policy details — that’s par for the course.
The more salient point here is the fact that the McKinsey & Company report is becoming a political weapon, despite the fact that (a) the firm has refused all requests to review the survey’s methodology; (b) sources with McKinsey confirm that the firm’s usual methodology was ignored when preparing this report; and (c) we still don’t know what the questions were, who wrote them, or who paid for all of this.
And yet, here’s the Speaker of the House, alerting the public to the McKinsey report as if it’s reliable. Here’s the follow-up for Boehner’s office: were Republican officials involved in this, or is the GOP simply peddling someone else’s bogus data?
