Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, told The Daily Caller that “several” areas of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act could be “improved” and acknowledged that a “bad result” of the law is that companies are cutting workers’ hours to avoid paying for their health insurance.
For example, Darden Restaurants, which operates the Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants, is reportedly limiting employees’ hours due to the health care law’s regulations on businesses.
“It’s a bad result. It is a bad result, and I’d like to – I’ve worked with them [Darden] on many issues, and I’d like to sit-down with them and find out what it is,” Durbin, who voted for Obamacare, told TheDC in a video interview at Hofstra University before Tuesday night’s presidential debate.
“Like I say, the only perfect law that was ever written was carried down on stone tablets from the mountain by Senator Moses,” Durbin said. “Everything else is subject to improvement, and that’s the way I look at the health care reform bill. Let’s sit down with these businesses, large and small, and find out how we can strike a happy medium.”
The law requires businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to provide health insurance for their workers, or pay a fine to the IRS.
Describing himself as a “single-payer guy,” Durbin also told TheDC he would like to see states adopt single-payer health care systems.
“I hope states will exercise their option to create a single-payer plan,” said Durbin.
“Let’s test it against the private insurance market, and over a period of time decide if that has some value in other places.”