The Affordable Care Act – Jobs and Costs
This paper attempts to consolidate various nonpartisan reports regarding the impact of the Affordable Care Act in regards to jobs and costs. We will make every attempt to update the paper on a routine basis in order to keep our readers informed. In each case, we have included a link to the entire report, study, or article. Secondary links to sources are not always provided but can be obtained through the main link we provide.
Florida
Questions about the Affordable Care Act? Head to Ruskin presentations
By KEVIN BRADY
Confused about the Affordable Care Act? Michael Van Hoek is your man.
Van Hoek, and thousands like him, are fanning out across the country this month to explain the new healthcare regulations. LINK
Minnesota
Minnesota likely to avoid states’ budget shock from ACA’s ‘welcome mat’ effect
by Elizabeth Stawicki, Minnesota Public Radio
June 28, 2013
Mississippi
Expanding Medicaid will generate over 9,000 new jobsacross Mississippi by the year 2020. This investment in health care will create more new jobs in Mississippi than Nissan and Toyota.
combined. http://msroadtoreform.org/health-care-reform/mississippi/medicaid
New Mexico
Impacts of Obamacare on New Mexico’s indigent healthcare programs still unclear
By Stella Davis currentargus
Ohio
According to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, by 2015 Medicaid expansion will create at least 23,000 new Ohio jobs in health care and other related industries, increase the earnings of Ohio residents by at least $16.7 billion, and increase the state’s total economic activity by at least $18.6 billion from 2014 to 2022. In fact, costs to employers could total $876 million to $1.3 billion in the states that oppose, are leaning against, or remain undecided on expansion as the result of penalties for noncompliance with the Affordable Care Act. LINK http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/news/2013/04/02/58922/10-frequently-asked-questions-about-medicaid-expansion/
Nebraska
According to an independent study by the University of Nebraska Medical Center,
spending by the federal government on Medica
id expansion would generate at least $700 million in new economic activity every year in Nebraska, which could
finance over 10,000 jobs each year through 2020. http://www.nasmhpd.org/docs/publications/NASMHPDMedicaidExpansionReportFinal.pdf
General
If individual governors and state legislatures do not choose to participate in the new
Medicaid expansion program, foregoing the substantial federal funds associated with expansion, their states will in effect have significant lost opportunities to reduce their budget deficits and increase economic activity. States that do not participate will lose new revenues coming into their states, and at the same time, will see their tax dollars
flow to states that chose to opt in to the new expansion program. The states that opt in
will then benefit in budget and revenue gains, with little accruing to the non-participating
states. In other words, if the state chooses to opt out, citizens would be contributing
federal tax dollarsto a program their constituents would never benefit from. http://www.nasmhpd.org/docs/publications/NASMHPDMedicaidExpansionReportFinal.pdf
The key finding is that Medicaid spending generates economic activity including jobs, income and state tax revenues at the state level. Medicaid’s economic impact is intensified because of federal matching dollars –state spending pulls federal dollars into the economy. Medicaid funding supports jobs and generates income within the health care sector and other sectors of the economy due to a major “multiplier effect.”
Massachusetts Shows That Expanding Coverage Reduces Costs
Massachusetts’ experience with its health reform effort offers strong evidence that expanding coverage under a comprehensive health reform plan can lead to sizeable reductions in state costs for uncompensated care. Massachusetts enacted legislation in 2006 to provide nearly universal health care coverage. The legislation combined a Medicaid expansion with subsidies to help lower-and moderate-income residents purchase insurance, an employer responsibility requirement, and a requirement for individuals to obtain coverage. All of these also are core elements of the ACA.
Expanding affordable health insurance options and instituting an individual mandate significantly decreased spending on uncompensated care in Massachusetts. The state replaced its Uncompensated
Care Pool (also known as “Free Care”) with the Health Safety Net, which provides
financial support to public hospitals and community health centers that serve
lower-income residents who are uninsured or underinsuredor who have significant medicalneeds.
In 2008, the first full year of health reform implementation, Health
Safety Net payments were $252 million, or 38 percent lessthan the previous year’s Uncompensated Care Pool payments. This reduction in uncompensated care costs coincided with a decline in the share of residents who are uninsured. Only 2.7 percent of residents were uninsured in 2009, compared to
5.7 percent in 2007.
Page- 19- LINK –The National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD)
Source:
Alan G. Raymond, “
Massachusetts Health Reform: A Five-Year Progress Report”
Foundation of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association,
2012