obamacare changes the equation, because plans will be limited by what they must provide and the cost of bureaucratic compliance being so high businesses will find it cheaper to drop the benefit. Losing employees is no longer an issue. We now have a new normal of 7% - 9% unemployment. We do not have a rapidly growing economy and because of the debt and QE we won't for a very long time.
I definitely think companies would drop plans for lower-wage, lower-skilled workers, roughly below the income threshold where they would qualify for subsidies. But I don’t think they’d find it advantageous to do so for middle and higher-income people who would have the options to seek employment from a competitor.
Exactly.