[MajimasEyepatch]

Same with people who complain about paying a living wage or basic benefits. I once had an Uber driver who, apropos of nothing, started telling me that he was driving for Uber because he had to shut his old business down after Obamacare went into effect because he couldn’t afford to provide health insurance for his employees. I just sort of nodded along because I didn’t really have a choice, but I couldn’t help but think, “Sounds like the problem was just that you weren’t a very good businessman.”

[mgkimsal]

Curious if he thinks uber should be providing health insurance for him or not.

[lordloki]

Additional government regulations will always require additional resources by a business to be compliant. By over regulating, the government is killing small businesses. The only organizations that can afford the resources to manage government bureaucracy are large companies. So I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss that Uber drivers statement.

[squigz]

Not mentioned in this comment are that those large companies are the ones who lobby for such regulation, so they can kill small businesses and gain their customers

[MajimasEyepatch]

Providing health insurance for full-time employees in the United States is just part of the cost of doing business. It's not cheap, but it's absolutely something you can budget for. IIRC this guy had over 50 employees working more than 30 hours a week (I think in a landscaping business) which is why he had to start providing healthcare. If he couldn't afford to pay for health insurance for his full-time employees, then frankly, that means his business was only ever viable as long as he was able to exploit his workers with substandard pay and benefits.

[bell-cot]

That one I'd be more sympathetic to. The fraction of GDP that America's health care sector rakes off is far out of line with other first-world economies. (And, by most metrics, their health systems deliver same-or-better results.) In effect: Any company which wants to employ actual Americans (one who'll have to get heath coverage) is forced to send huge-and-growing protection payments to America's health care system mafia.

[MajimasEyepatch]

Be that as it may, it's not like the ACA invented employer-sponsored health insurance. Health insurance is just part of the cost of doing business in the United States and has been standard for full-time employees (and many part-time ones) for decades. In this particular case, I believe he wasn't providing health insurance for anyone but was now required to because his company was over a certain size. (Something along those lines, it's been a long time.)