LABOR - CBO Report Sees Decrease in Labor Supply Because of ACA

Of course Republicans see this as more proof that ACA is bad, but listen to the full video and you see that that is a miss-reading of what the CBO says.  Some workers will leave the labor force because the job they had are ONLY so they could get health coverage through their employer, in other words they were ready to  retire.  Which, by the way, would leave more jobs open for others.

On the whole, the report is bad news for Republicans.

"New report forecasts health care reform law will decrease U.S. labor supply" PBS Newshour 2/4/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In the Congressional Budget Office’s economic outlook report for 2014, analysts predicted that as many as 2.3 million will stop working or work less as a result of the Affordable Care Act.  Gwen Ifill talks to NPR’s Julie Rovner about the findings and the political reactions coming from the White House and congressional Republicans.

GWEN IFILL (Newshour):  So, there’s a distinction to be drawn between this affecting job supply and worker supply.

JULIE ROVNER, NPR:  That’s right.  This is all on the supply side, not the demand side.  These are fewer — in fact, I will read the line that the CBO said:  “The estimated reduction stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in businesses’ demand for labor.”

So these are fewer workers in the work force, not fewer businesses hiring.