WASHINGTON –Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Ranking Member Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), said Wednesday that the U.S. economy has benefited from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), leading to a slower rate of growth in health care costs, increased workforce productivity and future deficit reductions. Watch the video.
Republican predictions that the ACA would cause economic doom were “dead wrong,” Maloney said at a JEC hearing on the impact of the ACA on employment.
Since the ACA became law in March 2010, businesses have created 12.3 million jobs during 62 consecutive months of private-sector job growth. In the past year, as the ACA’s major provisions have taken effect, the private sector has created nearly 3 million jobs.
“Republicans argue that health care reform kills jobs,” Maloney said. “Democrats understand that not having health care - kills people. A Harvard study conducted before the ACA was enacted found that 45,000 deaths each year are linked to a lack of health insurance.”
Republicans sought to portray President Obama’s health reform as a “job killer” that is creating a “part-time economy.” The Democrats’ chief witness, Paul Van de Water of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said there was simply no evidence to support the claim. In fact, the CBO has projected that if there are employment effects, they will be because poorer workers may voluntarily choose to work less once they have insurance. The analysis emphatically does not say that businesses will hire fewer workers.
“The Affordable Care Act is one of the most important pieces of legislation in a generation,” Maloney said. “… We are beginning to recognize the positive impacts of this ground-breaking law. Years from now, its significance will likely be considered on a par with the creation of Medicare and Medicaid.”
Economic benefits since the ACA was enacted include:
- Health care prices have risen at the slowest rate in nearly 50 years, passing savings onto workers. In 2014, the average family premium in employer-based coverage was about $1,800 less than if the law had not been enacted and growth since 2010 has maintained its 2000-2010 average.
- Workers with better access to quality health care are healthier, happier and more productive because they spend more time in the workforce, and less time away from work. The ACA also allows workers to switch jobs without fear they will lose their health insurance.
- Contrary to Republican predictions that employers would shed full-time workers to evade ACA requirements, part-time employment has declined since the ACA went into effect. In fact, the number of part-time workers who would prefer full-time work has declined for five consecutive years.
- The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the ACA will reduce the deficit by $100 billion between 2013 and 2022.
The rate of uninsured citizens is the lowest on record at 11.9 percent, which in turn reduces the chance of death among the uninsured. That rate of uninsured would be even lower if 21 states, mostly led by Republicans, had accepted the Medicaid expansion contained in the ACA.
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