Welcome login | signup
Language en es fr
OccupyForum

Forum Post: Obamacare to cost 2.5 million jobs

Posted 10 years ago on Feb. 4, 2014, 8:11 p.m. EST by Tanakasan (-7)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

The new healthcare law will cost the nation the equivalent of 2.5 million workers in the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated in a report released Tuesday.

The nonpartisan agency found the reform law’s negative effects on the economy would be “substantially larger” than what it had previously anticipated.

It said the equivalent of 2.3 million workers would be lost by 2021, compared to its previous estimate of 800,000, and that 2.5 million workers would be lost by 2024. It also projected that labor force compensation would be reduced by 1 percent from 2017 to 2024 — twice its previous estimate — and that declining economic growth would add $1 trillion more to deficits.

The findings immediately roiled the debate over the healthcare law on Capitol Hill ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

The White House swiftly pushed back against the findings, seeking to dismiss suggestions from Republicans that the Affordable Care Act has contributed to a slower economic recovery or would “kill” jobs.

It pointed out that the CBO concluded the reduction in worker hours was almost entirely because of workers choosing to work less.

“The estimated reduction stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in business’ demand for labor,” the CBO report said.

Republicans seized on the analysis, arguing it is proof that the healthcare law will hold back the economy.

“This latest diagnosis from the nonpartisan CBO confirms what we have been saying all along — that the president’s health law is bad medicine for jobs and the economy,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.).

“Washington can't continue to ignore the problem: trillions of dollars in empty promises. And ObamaCare is only making things worse,” said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the chairman of the House Budget Committee.

The CBO is not saying employers will fire millions of workers because of the law.

It instead found that the healthcare law will create disincentives for people to work and that this in turn will cut into the labor supply, hurt the economy, lower tax collection and cause higher deficits.

Some people will leave the workforce or reduce their hours in response to lower wages because of the healthcare law, while others will leave or reduce their hours because they have insurance coverage and do not need to work full time to keep it, the CBO said.

“All our analysis led us to conclude the effects of the [healthcare law] on labor force participation would be a good deal larger than we had thought originally,” CBO Director Doug Elmendorf said. “Fundamentally, the Affordable Care Act provides subsidies to lower income people and those subsidies phase out ... that will have some effects on discouraging labor supply.”

22 Comments

22 Comments


Read the Rules
[-] 2 points by nazihunter (215) 10 years ago

Is there such thing as 'non-partisan' in this country? So, the right complains lower wages will make people leave the workforce whilst they vote against increasing the minimum wage? Are there any arguments Republicans don't want to own both sides of? Hmmmm.

[-] 0 points by MattLHolck (16833) from San Diego, CA 10 years ago

yep jobs is the temple that we base policy on

not giving direct jobs

but making sure everyone works for someone

[-] 1 points by shoozTroll (17632) 10 years ago

Wallstreet is the temple, jobs are the graces they grant.

Money, the manna given, if you are pious enough.

[-] 0 points by MattLHolck (16833) from San Diego, CA 10 years ago

by path devoted

but not deserving of condemnation

[-] 0 points by shoozTroll (17632) 10 years ago

Wallstreet demands piety.

Did you send Ford a resume yet?

[-] 0 points by MattLHolck (16833) from San Diego, CA 10 years ago

they know who I am

probably easier to run out of hong kong

giving the semiconductor industry

[-] 0 points by shoozTroll (17632) 10 years ago

You may still be able to catch the boat at Ricoh/Pentax. They have a great new camera out and lots of new lenses in the works, though some of the new ones are just coming to market, as they replace the venerable SMC coatings with their new HD coating.

[-] 1 points by samantha (12) from New York, NY 10 years ago

Pentax make beautiful pictures. I use them to take pictures of flowers and my cats.

[-] 0 points by shoozTroll (17632) 10 years ago

Matt's not convinced, yet.

[-] 0 points by samantha (12) from New York, NY 10 years ago

He just needs to try a K7 with a Takumar lens then go to a park like Belle Isle.

[-] 0 points by shoozTroll (17632) 10 years ago

That's a long way from San Diego.

Do you go often?

[-] 0 points by samantha (12) from New York, NY 10 years ago

San Diego? Never been. The hubby's from Detroit. He worked on cars. Loading racks with finished axle shafts and did some inspection work. We moved back to NY (my city) when he retired. Our kids are still in Detroit, so we go often.

[-] 0 points by shoozTroll (17632) 10 years ago

Let me know when you're in town, I'll meet you at the Whitcomb.

Hopefully, they'll have the fountain running by summer.

[Removed]

[-] 0 points by MattLHolck (16833) from San Diego, CA 10 years ago

this ain't no contest nor race

[-] 0 points by shoozTroll (17632) 10 years ago

So you really do enjoy not having a job?

You should have said something.

I was under the opposite impression.

[-] -1 points by MattLHolck (16833) from San Diego, CA 10 years ago

I need money. I'll willing to work for it

I feel my projects contribute to society

don't need the pope to tell me jobs give dignity

[Removed]

[Removed]

[-] 0 points by WSmith (2698) from Cornelius, OR 10 years ago

Oh, the spin.

As predicted, ACA does not "Cost Jobs," it frees some Workers from some jobs ~ often dead-end, abusive, slave-wage jobs ~ which they held just for health care. Giving them time for other or higher pro-Worker pursuits, like childcare, home restoration, extended health care, or vacation/sabbatical. This new freedom has two other direct advantages: it frees up jobs for new workers and it tightens the Labor Market, which can increase wages, tax revenues and local business. Leave it to Righties to spin negatives out of win, win, wins!

[Removed]

[-] 0 points by MattLHolck (16833) from San Diego, CA 10 years ago

don't have a job

can't pay to live

[-] 0 points by WSmith (2698) from Cornelius, OR 10 years ago

You know what the RepubliCon solution is for homelessness and illness? Die and die fast!

[-] 0 points by shoozTroll (17632) 10 years ago

This was released today, it took getting across the country, for a proper interpretation.

"The Congressional Budget Office is out with its latest report on the Affordable Care Act, and here are a few bottom lines:

— The ACA is cheaper than it expected.

— It will "markedly increase" the number of Americans with health insurance.

— The risk-adjustment provisions, which Congressional Republicans want to overturn as a "bailout" of the insurance industry, will actually turn a profit to the U.S. Treasury.

Given all this, why are the first news headlines on the CBO report depicting it as calling Obamacare a job killer?

You can chalk up some of that to the crudity of headline-writing, and some to basic innumeracy in the press. But it's important to examine what the CBO actually says about the ACA's impact on the labor market. (You can find it at pages 117-127, excerpted here.)"

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-79163149/

[Removed]

[Removed]

[Removed]

[-] 0 points by shoozTroll (17632) 10 years ago

What disincentives?

[Removed]

[Removed]

[Removed]