Delaney Votes to Improve Affordable Care Act, Prevent Decrease in Hours for Working Americans

WASHINGTON - The House has passed the Save American Workers Act (H.R. 30) which improves the Affordable Care Act and is designed to prevent workers from losing hours due to the law. Congressman John K. Delaney (MD-6) voted for the bill, which passed in a 252-171 vote.

The legislation changes the definition of a full-time worker under the Affordable Care Act for the purposes of determining applicability of the employer mandate from 30 hours to 40 hours per week.

“For millions of Americans the key to a middle class life isn’t just securing a job, it’s securing enough hours at that job to support themselves and their families. The last thing I want is a constituent in Hagerstown or Gaithersburg to see their hours cut when we can take a simple step to make that less likely,” said Congressman Delaney. “I support the Affordable Care Act, but believe that it should be improved in response to real-world consequences. Supporters and opponents of the Affordable Care Act agree that it is complex and wide-ranging legislation. I think that most of the changes, on balance, are good: patients and consumers have important new protections and more people will have access to health care coverage. But I remain concerned that the structure of the employee mandate will encourage a wide-scale reduction of hours, with an end result that many hard-working Americans will be stuck at 29 hours of work a week. This bipartisan legislation prevents this unintended consequence of the Affordable Care Act from taking place.”

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