It isn't just the lay offs, as this article in The Hill points out:

"Employers in several Districts cited the unknown effects of the Affordable Care Act as reasons for planned layoffs and reluctance to hire more staff," said the March 6 beige book, which examines economic conditions across various Federal Reserve districts across the country.

 

That line was found in a section of the Fed's report on employment, wages and prices. That same section also said the Atlanta district noted that healthcare regulations are so burdensome there is a shortage of compliance specialists.

"Atlanta noted a lack of compliance specialists due to heavier regulations in the healthcare industry," it said.

In a later section focusing on the Philadelphia district, the beige book said that "Health insurance costs are mixed, ranging from very high increases to no change." The Cleveland district reported that "rising health insurance premiums remain a challenge" in the manufacturing industry, and that many in the energy sector cited "rising health insurance premiums as a concern."

This is going to go down very badly for business. The new regs will dribble out over the next year,  but companies will have to comply with  most of them on January 1, 2014. HHS is going to be inundated with requests for clarification because no one has any experience interpreting what the bureaucrats want businesses to do.

Companies will have to hire more compliance officers just to deal with the additional paperwork. Small businesses will either have to contract out compliance, or simply do their best and hope.

But all of this doesn't matter because Obamacare is the most historic piece of legislation passed since the 1960's. It will kill jobs, stifle the economy, deliver substandard care to most Americans - but Obama will go down in history for passing it.

And as we all know, that's the important thing.