CBO Director Says ObamaCare Will Drive People From the Workforce

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

(CNSNews.com) – Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf said the most significant economic effect of President Barack Obama’s health care reform package will be to drive people out of the job market.

“For the economy outside the health sector, the most significant impact of the legislation will be through the labor market,” Elmendorf said on Oct. 22. “We estimated that the legislation, on net, will reduce the amount of labor used in the economy by roughly half a percent, primarily by reducing the amount that people choose to work.”

Elmendorf made the remarks at a conference sponsored by the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California.

He explained that people would choose not to work because they could subsist on the generous federal insurance subsidies and Medicaid payments contained in the health care overhaul.

“Some provisions of the legislation will discourage people from working more hours or entering the workforce, and other provisions will encourage them to work more,” he said, adding that “[t]he net reduction in the supply of labor is largely attributable to the substantial expansion of Medicaid and the provision of subsidies through the new insurance exchanges.”

Elmendorf’s analysis of the health care law’s economic impact seems to support House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) seemingly off-the-cuff remark in May when she said that because of the subsidies in the health care bill, people could quit their regular jobs and pursue their artistic dreams because the government would now provide for their health care.

“We see it as an entrepreneurial bill,” Pelosi said on May 14, “a bill that says to someone, if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill, your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care.”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cbo-director-obamacare-will-drive-people-0

[Dan J 277]

Do you have any idea how many people are tied to their jobs solely because of health care coverage offered by the employer?

Without that tie binding employees to their jobs, many will feel free to choose employers that they like rather than those who over the best coverage. Which will force employers to complete on other benefits and compensation.

Additionally, more people will be willing to take the risk of innovating and starting new businesses if they are not concerned how they will be able to get affordable health care coverage.

There are people who take advantage of the siltation, but there are many more who are bound by the health care system as it has been.

[^_^ 5,021]

Without that tie binding employees to their jobs, many will feel free to choose employers that they like rather than those who over the best coverage. Which will force employers to complete on other benefits and compensation.

Additionally, more people will be willing to take the risk of innovating and starting new businesses if they are not concerned how they will be able to get affordable health care coverage.

There are people who take advantage of the siltation, but there are many more who are bound by the health care system as it has been.

Yes, this article focuses solely on those who will "take advantage" of the new law. One wonders, given the obvious benefits to those who wish to go out on their own (but have family members with chronic/expensive conditions), why the focus of this article is what it is? An agenda, maybe?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Yes, this article focuses solely on those who will "take advantage" of the new law. One wonders, given the obvious benefits to those who wish to go out on their own (but have family members with chronic/expensive conditions), why the focus of this article is what it is? An agenda, maybe?

Less than a week from an election? Hardly.