Obamacare enrolment begins, but no major gain for Wipro, Cognizant

IT services companies, which were betting on the enrolment for Obamacare to revive faster growth in healthcare services business in the US, may be disappointed as the Trump administration has cut budgets and time for enrolment of the landmark healthcare programme.

Software service providers such as Wipro, Cognizant, Accenture and BPO companies earn a good portion of their revenues by providing services to health insurance companies and the marketplaces for buying health insurance in the US. These companies were awaiting clarity on the proposed change in legislation of Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare and some of them felt the pinch as clients delayed in making decisions for new projects.

While Wipro, which counts close to 15 per cent of its revenues from healthcare services, claimed to have lost $120 million on a run-rate basis in the past 12 months; another IT major Accenture saw business being impacted due to delay in decision making.

As the Open Enrollment has begun for 2018 on November 1, the US administration has shortened the duration to 45 days, unlike earlier years, and not given enough publicity resulting in confusion among citizens.

Global analysts largely say "nothing much has changed" despite efforts by the current administration to replace the healthcare legislation and this could mean no major change in business for IT services companies, both Indian and global, at least this year.
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Your wait to end now: This bill will speed up Green Card for Indian techies

An influential American lawmaker has called for the removal of country-specific quota for legal permanent residency, also known as Green Card in the US.

Republican Congressman Kevin Yoder from Kansas, who on Wednesday became the lead sponsor of the previously Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, argued that the existing country-specific quota for Green card is unjust for people from countries like India and China.

A report released this week said that the average wait time for an Indian technology professional or those seeking green card under the employment category is more than 12 years.

The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act was previously introduced by former-Representative Jason Chaffetz, with Yoder as an original cosponsor.

Currently, 230 Members of Congress are signed on as cosponsors of the bill, with more than 100 Members from each party in support.

On Wednesday, Yoder became its lead sponsor.

The Act reforms the legal immigration system by eliminating the existing, arbitrary per-country percentage caps that have caused backlogs in the employment-based green card system, he said.

"Under the existing per-country percentage caps, large nations like India and China, which account for more than 40 percent of the world's population, receive the same amount of visas as Greenland, a country that accounts for one-one thousandth of a per cent of the world's population," he said.

"With about 95 per cent of the employment-based green card applicants already living and working in America on temporary visas, the vast majority of applicants are simply waiting in line to get approved for permanent residence.

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