Farming Industry Balks at Obamacare Requirements | Consumer Alliance for a Strong Economy

By April Dembosky at KQED

January 26, 2016

Obamacare is throwing the agricultural industry into a tailspin. Farm labor contractors who must now offer their workers health insurance are complaining loudly about the cost in their already low-margin business.

Some are also concerned that the forms they must file with the federal government under the Affordable Care Act will bring immigration problems to the fore: about half of the farm labor workforce in the U.S. is undocumented.

“There’s definitely going to be some repercussions to it,” says Jesse Sandoval, a farm labor contractor based in Stockton. “I think there’s going to be some things that cannot be ignored.”