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Study Proves Republicans Totally Wrong: Obamacare Doesn’t Kill Jobs

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A new study from the Urban Institute proves that Republicans are wrong about Obamacare killing jobs.

The August 2015 study from the Urban Institute found:

We find that the ACA had virtually no adverse effect on labor force participation, employment, or usual hours worked per week through 2014. This conclusion is true for ACA policies overall and for the Medicaid expansions in particular, and it applies to the full sample of nonelderly persons and to the subgroup of nonelderly persons with a high school education or less who are more likely to be affected by the ACA.

For nonelderly adults with a high school education or less, we find that employment in 2014 is 1.8 percentage points higher than what would be expected given the rates of unemployment, demographic characteristics and pre-existing time trends. This finding is inconsistent with predictions that the ACA would decrease employment.

Also for nonelderly adults with a high school education or less, we find that part-time employment is higher than expected by 0.5 percentage points. This finding is consistent with some predictions that the ACA would increase part-time work, but may also reflect the continuing recovery in the labor market. This difference is sufficiently small, however, that we find no evidence of a change in the number of hours worked in 2014 and thus no overall change in labor supply beyond what would be expected.

The ACA’s Medicaid expansions had virtually no effect on labor market outcomes through the end of 2014. This finding is consistent with the best available previous evidence, which suggests any effects of Medicaid expansions on employment are likely to be small.

Sen. Ted Cruz has been falsely claiming for years that Obamacare is the biggest job-killer in America.

Speaker of the House John Boehner claimed that Obamacare will kill 2.3 million jobs:

Gov. Bobby Jindal has pushed the myth that Obamacare kills jobs, “Why not delay all of the mandates in Obamacare [which] has become such a job killer in our economy.”

In fact, it is nearly impossible to find a Republican who hasn’t embraced the false statements about the ACA and jobs. The reality is that every Republican, who claims that Obamacare kills jobs is lying. The studies and economic data agree that the ACA has had no impact on jobs.

Any Republican who claims that Obamacare kills jobs is not being honest. Instead of asking for Republicans to tell the truth, it’s time for the American people to confront them with the facts and ask why they don’t want us to have access to affordable healthcare.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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