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

 

This post attempts to include most of the statements made by various politicians after the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act.

This first grouping is from PolitifFact:

Rick Scott – Florida Governor: A company with “20 employees” could go “out of business” because of health care law requirements to buy insurance. Rated blatantly wrong or “pants on fire.”

Rick Scott – Florida Governor:  The Medicaid expansion is “going to cost Florida $1.9 billion a year.”  Rated wrong and wildly overstated.

Rick Scott – Florida Governor: Says the health care law rations care, like systems in Canada and Great Britain. Rated wrong and simply empty rhetoric.

Mitt Romney –Obamacare … means that for up to 20 million Americans, they will lose the insurance they currently have, the insurance that they like and they want to keep.”  Rated incorrect.

Mitt Romney –”Obamacare adds trillions to our deficits and to our national debt.” Rated incorrect

Rush Limbaugh –”Obamacare is . . . the largest tax increase in the history of the world.” Rated, pants on fire; a total lie.

United States Chamber of Commerce: “20 million people could lose their current coverage” … “including our senior citizens who are on Medicare.” Rated pants on fire; a total lie

United States Chamber of Commerce: “Seniors will see $500 billion in Medicare cuts to fund Obamacare.” Rated mostly false.

United States Chamber of Commerce: “Obamacare … will kill jobs across America.”  Rated totally false

 

From factcheck.org

Republican claims the affordable health care act will result in substantial job losses. Rated:  “The exaggerated Republican claim that the new health care law “kills jobs” was high on our list of the “Whoppers of 2011.” But the facts haven’t stopped Republicans and their allies from making the “job-killing” claim a major theme of their campaign 2012 TV ads.” factcheck

The Romney campaign asserts that Obama failed to live up to his promise to reduce health insurance premiums for families by $2500 a year. Factcheck.org rates this statement as four Pinocchios and totally false. They refer to it as a Romney whopper.

A Republican claim that the federal health care law taxes “heart attacks, sick puppies and even new babies” is a dog. Turns out it’s a reference to excise taxes on certain medical devices.

“The National Republican Congressional Committee crams a highlight reel of misleading claims about the health care law into a 90-second video that encourages viewers to sign an “I Want Repeal” petition. We’ve seen most of these before, but the claim about puppies and babies was new to us. And we found it takes more stretching than a puppy with fleas to make those claims hold up. Factcheck.org  Rated false.