In Monday’s Wall Street Journal, Paul Christiansen wrote an opinion piece entitled, “To Outsmart ObamaCare, Go Protean.” In it, he says,
Thousands of small businesses across the U.S. are desperately looking for a way to escape their own fiscal cliff. That’s because ObamaCare is forcing them to cover their employees’ health care or pay a fine—either of which will cut into profits and stymie future investment and growth….
We’ve already seen many of America’s biggest companies respond to the new law by laying off employees, putting them on part-time, or raising prices. But those are short-term solutions. Ultimately, these corporations will have to innovate and restructure to thrive in the era of ObamaCare. If small businesses follow their lead, they may even gain an advantage over their big competitors.
In the context of ObamaCare, a small business could go protean by offering current employees contracts for doing their current work as a corporate entity instead of as an employee. Entrepreneurial employees will jump at the chance to form a corporation and run their own business. Non-entrepreneurial employees can choose to move on and find other work—or work hard to join the core company.
He goes on to explain the model in more detail.
I’m all for innovation, and businesses coming up with better, more efficient ways to conduct their business is great. But when they’re forced to do so as part of a convoluted attempt to avoid government rules and regulations, it takes away from businesses’ ability to do what they do best and what’s most valuable – building their businesses and employing more people. And that harms everyone.
