Papa John's Obamacare problems

>>> the founder and ceo of papa johns says obama care is is so costly his employees will pay the price . papa johns ceo was a big time romney supporter and fundraiser. he says he's impartial to obama care, but his actions suggest otherwise. day after the election, he told a group of college students the affordab affordable care act in his employee's hours being cut. it would cost his business. companies with over 50 employees must provide health insurance to full-time workers. so some franchise owners could cut hours to avoid the cost. health care is not going to break the bank for papa johns . they said it would increase the cost of pizza by only 11 to 14 cents. his recent remarks suggest the option is off the table. meanwhile, papa john 's is doing pretty good under the obama economy. take a look at their commercials.

>> what are we going to do this season?

>> one million free pizzas.

>> two million free pizzas, i like it.

>> two million it is.

>> papa john 's has two million free pizzas to give away but they can't afford to give workers health care . e he lives in a mansion with a 22-car garage and this guy doesn't want to give pizza deliver workers health insurance ? papa john 's made $44 million during the first nine months of 2012 . papa john 's has the money to provide health insurance , but just doesn't like the plan. for more, let's turn to sam stein, political reporter for "the huffington post ." it's getback night on pizza. this has a way of snowballing, so to speak. this could end up being a republican pushback against the president and health care . what do you make of it?

>> you're right. you have seen papa john 's take a hit. if they continue down this path, there's going to be organized boycotts to hurt business and bottom line as well. the question is about a $5 to $8 million cost for a company with operating expenses of $1.3 billion. so it's minuscule. he's trying to make a political point. for instance, there's minimum wage requirements. and this is what the obama care is about. if you have 50 employees, you're required to pay for their health care coverage or pay a penalty. papa john 's can pay the penalty. but he's making a political point. because e he doesn't have to make this decision for another year. the law takes place in 2014 . if he's trying to do it right after the election as a try of making a point.

>> president obama is meeting with business leaders on wednesday. do you think this is going to come up? this pushback against obama care?

>> sure. we got a hint of how this is playing out when john boehner told absentc that it's now the law of the land . for some reason, republicans are still invested in repealing obama care. the problem they are going to confront is that this thing is going forward with or without them. in 2014 , new regulations will take place including the banning of discrimination for preexisting conditions. also exchanges in the states will take place whether or not the states say yes or no. the government will step in. so they can either get on board or not. the election was sort of the last legitimate opportunity for them to politically repeal this law. that's now passed. there are other appeals, but it doesn't stand that great of chance. they have to work within the confines of the legislation.

>> this is going to be a big issue in the midterms. because it's just going to be on the verge of being fully implemented or fully implement ed in 2014 . and then you're going to have the election just months after that. i mean is this a good place for the democrats to be? those working folks are going to get health insurance because of this law.

>> yeah. there's always this mind set about the law that the longer it existed, the more the legislation went into effect, the more popular it would be. that hapt proved correct in the first couple years, in large part because the goodies were back loaded. now we'll see if the bill can skel. if you looked at the polls, people wanted to repeal the legislation, but more want to keep it in place or expand upon it or reform it it. so you'll have a few efforts to reform the legislation without doing away with it entirely, maybe some more opt out ability, if that's a word, for states. and i think it will generally gain in popularity.

>> i think it will. sam stein, " huffington post ," good to have you with us. that's "the ed show." i'm ed