The impact of Obamacare on the outsourcing industry

DELAWARE, Del. - March 25, 2013 - PRLog -- US President Barack Obama may well be congratulating himself for his Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 2010 – popularly nicknamed as ObamaCare - but are all Americans equally happy? Sure, Obamacare is directed at reducing health costs of the Americans by simultaneously increasing the number of insured Americans. But also by sounding the death knell for the scores of small businesses and start-ups across America who will find themselves at the receiving end of a very harsh employer mandate.

Here's the catch with Obamacare. Any company that exceeds 50 employees on its pay rolls will now be forced by law to provide health insurance for these employees or be prepared to pay hefty fines to the tune of US $2000 per employee. The high cost of this employer-subsidized health insurance is approximately $4,000 per worker or even more, something that can literally pull the rug from under the SMEs scattered across the US. So, where are they going to turn for help and a bail-out option? No second guesses here. Obviously, the outsourcing option is going to look more attractive than ever before, with its inherent ability to provide a plank across very deep financial moat indeed.

Yes, the irony of the matter is hard to miss. Obama, with his no-holds-barred opposition to outsourcing, is now literally gifting the outsourcing industry almost the entire American SME segment who will, doubtless, be scrambling to save their already-stretched finances by taking refuge in this business strategy. If hiring beyond 50 employees is going to be more of a headache than a boon for their sales graph, then it would make definite business sense to outsource work that requires extra local hiring. Its a simple matter of numbers.

However, within the outsourcing industry, perhaps the model that stands the most to gain because of Obamacare is the remote or virtual employee model. The outsourcing companies who are into providing remote staffing solutions can easily equip SMEs with remote employees from any field or profession and who can work from the vendor's well-maintained and supervised office. So, the SME gets both, a dedicated employee who works exclusively for them just as an in-house employee would, and the freedom to scale up their staff strength without getting caught in the Obamacare dragnet.

Widely hailed as anti-growth, Barrack Obama's ambitious healthcare plan may have to contend with the unprecedented spurt in offshore outsourcing as hundreds and thousands of SMEs look upon it as the one sure way of deftly sidestepping the rather tough employer mandate.