How Health Care Reform Affects Temp Work

As health care reform continues to roll out across the United States, temporary staffing agencies and workers are still figuring out how it affects them. Various interested parties, including employers, temporary staffing agencies, and job seekers doing temp work, feel the effects of health care reform differently.

Effects on Temp Workers

While some employees doing temp work prefer to work limited hours for personal or other reasons, many temp workers have accepted these jobs only because nothing else is available and would prefer to see their temp work positions become full time. Unfortunately, the implementation of health care reform combined with a not-fully-recovered economy make it unlikely for those jobs to develop into full-time jobs with benefits any time soon. The good news, however, is that those doing temp work now have the opportunity to purchase their own health insurance regardless of any pre-existing conditions or other impediments that kept them from getting insurance before. In addition, depending on their financial status, temp workers may be eligible for financial help from the federal government with their health insurance premiums. While that's not the same as getting that sought-after full-time job with benefits, it's an improvement over what the typical situation had been previously for temp workers.

Effects on Employers

Large firms facing the Affordable Care Act employer mandate that requires companies to provide health insurance for their workers may choose, in some cases, to get around that requirement by hiring workers on a temporary basis. Some firms prefer to pay the fine of $2,000 per worker rather than provide health insurance. Some firms are also cutting back the hours of their non-salaried employees to under 30 hours per week so they won't be required to provide health insurance, even though this can lead to administrative difficulties. Some firms are responding to new federal health care mandates by hiring more people to do temp work. This saves the companies money but lowers the overall expertise and experience of their work forces.

Effects on Temp Staffing Agencies

Under new requirements, temporary staffing agencies with over 50 full-time employees must provide health insurance for all their full-time temp workers. This is a change from previous requirements that only mandated health insurance for staffing companies' full-time office workers. Those doing full-time temp work may now be legally eligible for health insurance through their staffing agencies. As with other employers, some staffing agencies have already decided to pay the fines levied against firms that violate reform mandates rather than paying for their temp workers' health insurance.

As a result of all the changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act, many people doing temp work, even those working full-time on a temporary basis, don't know what their health insurance status is. As reform continues to be implemented on a state-by-state basis, it is likely that the unclear status of temp workers will be resolved to a greater extent.

(Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles / freedigitalphotos.net)