ObamaCare to Cost Employers $5000 Per Employee

"And thus I give unto you mortals, the end of employer-based health insurance. You're welcome."

Maybe even more than that... But hey, remember that any claims that ObamaCare is bad for the economy is/are (a) stupid (b) racist (c) because you want poor people to die.

From The Washington Free Beacon article by Elizabeth Harrington (via Drudge):

Obamacare will cost large companies between $4,800 and $5,900 more per employee and add hundreds of millions to their overhead, according to a new survey. 

The American Health Policy Institute conducted a confidential survey of 100 large employers—those with 10,000 or more employees—asking what costs they expect to incur from Obamacare over the next decade. 

Factoring in the health care law’s added mandates, fees, and regulatory burdens, employers anticipate cost hikes between $163 million and $200 million in 2016, a 4.3 percent increase. By 2023, employers will be paying 8.4 percent more than “what they would otherwise be spending” for their employees’ health care. 

In the next 10 years, the total cost of Obamacare to all large American employers is estimated to be from $151 billion to $186 billion, according to the study. 

“This study is a c-suite diagnosis of how [the Affordable Care Act] ACA is shaping large employer behavior,” Tevi Troy, president of the American Health Policy Institute, said. “We don’t know yet precisely how employers will react, but the study shows that employers will have to make real changes or incur heavy costs, which means that the ACA will have a significant impact on those in employer-sponsored health care.”  

[...]  

“If the law leads to significant cost increases for [employers], this would affect the behavior of employers, which could in turn affect how—and even whether—they provide health care for their employees,” the study said. 

Health care costs have already been increasing for large businesses, which spend $578.6 billion each year to provide health coverage for 170.9 million employees, retirees, and dependents. However, numerous studies suggest that Obamacare is adding to employers’ burdens. 

For instance, a report by the Urban Institute found that Obamacare increased large employer health costs by $11.8 billion in 2012, and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the excise tax on high-cost plans would cost $32 billion from 2018 to 2019.

Don't worry Americans! According to Dems, this is really, really good news for the economy. I'm not totally sure why, but it is! Or is it that it's only good for Washington DC's economy? I keep forgetting...