Obamacare is hitting teachers’ jobs due to the 30-hour workweek threshold, a North Carolina congresswoman stressed, adding that the law means “work less and suffer more.”
NBC WITN Greenville reported this week that substitute teachers are scrambling to make ends meet:
Jordan Banjo, a sub in Pitt County, says she’s now wondering how she will continue to survive and make ends meet without that income.
She worked over 30 hours a week until last month when the district sent a notice to all subs that their hours would be restricted to just 3 days a week–about 21 hours.
Banjo says that was disheartening, “Cause I need the money, need to work, I’m willing and able to work and now they’re telling me I can only work for so long.”
Pitt County Schools spokesman Brock Letchworth says It’s because of the Affordable Health Care Act. He says, “The cost for us to be able to provide health care to everyone would be just over a million dollars, is what I’m told, and that is the lowest cost to this school system.”
Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) said each day brings new news of “the dangers facing millions of Americans due to Obamacare.”
“We learned that our substitute teachers in North Carolina are losing their hours and income. In just one North Carolina county, as many as 200 teachers are facing fewer options – all because of Obamacare’s employer mandate. This is happening all over our state and across the country. Millions of hard working Americans are told to work less and suffer more in order to comply with the law,” Ellmers said.
“In my own district, substitute teachers are facing the same problem,” she added. “A Lee County official confirmed this to my office today, saying ‘we are cutting hours for all our part-time people so they don’t trigger healthcare coverage.’ Lee County officials also noted that they are considering sending those employees who are currently over the 30 hours per week threshold to a temporary agency and then hiring them back through the agency to avoid the healthcare costs.”
Former American Idol star Clay Aiken, who’s running in the Democratic primary in a quest to win Ellmers’ seat, said he supports fixing Obamacare to a point.
“I don’t think that it’s completely perfect. I think there are a whole bunch of things that should be fixed and rough edges that should be smoothed out. I think that’s a problem that Democrats in general have, an inability to recognize the fact that a lot of people do have problems with that particular law. There are a lot of people who have a lot of problems with a lot of parts of it,” Aiken told the Raleigh News & Observer last month.
“That said, the number of things that are positive about the law, we don’t talk about enough,” Aiken continued. “There are parts of it, like doctors not being able to be paid to prescribe you a particular medication, like hospitals now having to tell you what they are charging you for and how much they are charging you for. A lot of parts we don’t talk about enough that I think need to get more light on them.”
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