Health-care reform, particularly the Affordable Care Act, may not be the only thing keeping CFOs, controllers and other business executives up at night. But that issue, along with concerns about political leadership, was cited in a recent study as the “most significant” reason that many executives took a more pessimistic view of the economy during the third quarter of 2013 than they did in the second quarter.
The AICPA study shows CPAs expect increases in health care costs over the next 12 months to rise to 6.8 percent in Q3, the highest level since 2010. According to the report, “expectations for healthcare cost increases continue to be higher than other costs." ...
The AICPA survey findings echo those of a Duke University/CFO Global Business Outlook Survey released yesterday: the latter found health-care regulations to be a discouragement to hiring.
- Fifty-nine percent of the 530 U.S. CFOs (taken as a subset of the global 1,200+ respondents) surveyed said they increased the proportion of the workforce with temporary or part-time workers.
- And 38 percent of those respondents cited new health-care regulations under the Affordable Care Act as part of the reason that their companies decreased full-time employment.
- More than 40 percent blamed “extreme economic uncertainty” for why they would hire more temporary workers. ...
