According to congressional budget analysts, The Affordable Care Act, or otherwise known as Obamacare, will deplete the number of full-time workers in the US to 2.3 million in the next few years. The Washington Post said in its report that the Congressional Budget Office's latest analysis is the most detailed yet about the US legislation's impact on employment.
The Congressional Budget Office report said that its latest study showed that some full-time workers could decide to let go of their jobs after acquiring healthcare coverage, while others will cut back on working hours. The report also concluded that the implementation of Obamacare has the most impact on low-wage workers, wherein their lot would decide to drop out of the workforce. The CBO added that the impact of Obamacare on employment will mostly show up after 2016.
The report released by the government agency was an in-depth analysis on how the average Americans have felt with regard to the changes their employers had made for Obamacare. The Post said some of them opted to keep their Medicaid membership as opposed to taking jobs at lower wages. Others will opt to delay their return to so they will be able to keep their private insurance subsidies.
CBO added, "(The reduction in employment from the health care law) includes some people choosing not to work at all and other people choosing to work fewer hours than they would have in the absence of the law."
On the other hand, CBO claimed that the The Affordable Care Act will see 13 million enrollments in 2015 and 24 million by year 2017.
The Post said CBO initially estimated that the impact of Obamacare on employment would be the reduction of 800,000 jobs in 2021. The previous analysis had sought employers' response regarding a new penalty for failure to offer their employees who work over 30 hours a week insurance. The study, the Post said, revealed that employers will be reducing people's hours, hiring and wages for new job positions.
