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Why the new CBO report on Obamacare is good news
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-cbo-20140204,0,3106578.story#axzz2sLHSBaDlGiven 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.)
The CBO projects that the act will reduce the supply of labor, not the availability of jobs. There's a big difference. In fact, it suggests that aggregate demand for labor (that is, the number of jobs) will increase, not decrease; but that many workers or would-be workers will be prompted by the ACA to leave the labor force, many of them voluntarily.
As economist Dean Baker points out, this is, in fact, a beneficial effect of the law, and a sign that it will achieve an important goal. It helps "older workers with serious health conditions who are working now because this is the only way to get health insurance. And (one for the family values crowd) many young mothers who return to work earlier than they would like because they need health insurance. This is a huge plus."
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-cbo-20140204,0,3106578.story#ixzz2sNcD3ZtJ
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Why the new CBO report on Obamacare is good news (Original Post)
swag
Feb 2014
OP
central scrutinizer
(11,666 posts)1. people like me who are close to retirement age
are often hanging on to their job to keep their health care. I might retire, but somebody will be immediately hired to replace me.
nykym
(3,063 posts)2. Well in light of that
explanation it does sound good.
The problem is the headline and the republican party.
They will shout this out from every news program they can get on.
The Democrats need to get out in front of this.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)3. Any sort of affordable HC should have this effect
For example, lowering the Medicare eligibility to 60 would free up the jobs held by 60-64 year olds who only suffer in their jobs to get the insurance. And there is nothing special about 60.
The ACA is a half-trillion-dollar-per-year gift to insurance companies, and horrible for Americans as a whole, but "killing jobs" is not one of its problems.