NEW YORK TIMES: A Congressional Budget Office analysis released Tuesday predicted that the Affordable Care Act would shrink the work force by the equivalent of more than two million full-time positions and recharged the political debate over the health care law, providing Republican opponents fresh lines of attack and putting Democrats on the defensive…
The budget office analysis found that the law, in effect, nudges workers to work less. The insurance expansion reduces the need for a person to take a full-time job just to get coverage. The premium subsidies effectively bolster household income. Higher taxes for richer households also reduce the incentive to work.
But it will also have an effect on businesses, the report said, including by encouraging them to reduce employee hours to avoid the “employer mandate.” The overall demand for labor would not change, in other words, but businesses might arrange their workers’ schedules differently to avoid having to provide them with health care…
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EDITOR: As was well understood at the time, the Affordable Health Care Act was an interim and unsavory compromise due to the obstacles posed to real reform by special interests. It was the best that President Barack Obama felt he could achieve in order to bring medical insurance to an additional 40 million people.
Real reform would be a single payer system such as is offered by most nations with advanced economies, and ideally Medicare for everyone.
