The ACA is critical to the continued growth of the gig economy because it separates the ability to obtain health insurance from the need to hold a traditional full-time job. It gives all independent workers — consultants, contractors, freelancers, part-time, and on-demand workers — a way to obtain health insurance coverage without relying on an employer. Today, 20%–40% of the workforce works independently, and that share is only projected to grow.
The repeal of the ACA without a comparable replacement will bring America back to the days when obtaining health insurance essentially meant working in a traditional job for a single employer and employees were reluctant to strike out on their own for fear of losing their insurance. Independent workers would be left with the limited health insurance options they faced years ago: either buying a costly private health plan that doesn’t cover preexisting conditions, includes caps on maximum benefits payouts, and could even be rescinded after an enrollee becomes sick, or searching for increasingly scarce jobs from companies that are more and more reluctant to hire full-time employees.
Requiring workers to hold a full-time job in order to obtain health insurance makes little sense in today’s dynamic economy. Companies are born, fail, merge, and conduct layoffs and downsizings too regularly and too frequently to be relied on for the steady, continuous provision of important employee benefits. The median tenure in a job is now between three and five years for a mid-career employee, and even lower for those just starting their working lives. The need for accessible, portable health insurance has never been higher.