Photo by: Abby Bellow
According to the latest Congressional Budget Office report, 2.3 million full-time jobs will be eradicated over the next 10 years – a significant increase from 2010’s CBO report of 650,000 potential losses. The report ties the job loss to Obamacare.
“I was worried about losing my job or that my job might get cut or phased out,” Angela Harris, a target case manager at a nonprofit family service and guidance center for mental health patients, said.
Like many other Americans, Harris is afraid her full-time position is threatened by the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
“I doubt anyone drops a job or insurance to have access to [the] ACA,” Dr. William Hugh Nesbit, hospitalist at Southcrest Hospital in Tulsa, Okla., said. “I think more people will be forced to buy Obamacare due to layoffs caused by Obamacare.”
The report indicates the Affordable Care Act encourages employers to downsize their number of full-time employees by simply enticing the employee to opt out and receive their medical benefits from the exchanges, allowing employers to do away with the positions.
“Losing 2.3 million jobs means that people who are working 50 to 60 hours would be working more like 40, but still be able to provide what they need for their families,” freshman Steven Moore said. “It may be a good idea, and it may help them out, but you have to do what you got to do to help your families and others that need help.”
To fend off this looming threat from both ends, some companies like Harris’ employer took precautionary measures, knowing the Affordable Care Act could change the rates and coverage and ultimately the status of their employees.
“For a small employer, we’ve had to increase deductibles to minimize the increase in [our] cost,” CEO of Amerind Risk Management Derek Valdo Sr. said.
Companies are looking for new and innovative ways to maintain sustainability in their efforts to satisfy the employee and meet the requirements, while keeping costs low.
Despite these concerns, the report also indicated that the U.S. budget deficit would fall to $514 billion this year from last year’s $680 billion, the lowest of Obama’s tenure.
Next year’s deficit is expected to take another drop to $478 billion, coming five years after the Wall Street bailouts – where the nation saw a record deficit of $1.4 trillion in 2009.
Ken Miller, Oklahoma state treasurer and associate professor of business at Oklahoma Christian University, said state programs should be the answer.
“Market-based and state-based solutions are always best,” Miller said in a statement. “I believe the federal government should grant Oklahoma’s request for expansion of the Insure Oklahoma program.”
The unemployment rate is also steady at 6.8 percent and expected to remain just above 6 percent through the remainder of Obama’s term.
Some perceive the CBO report as stating Americans will not have to work as hard to afford health care coverage, trimming the hours worked by the sum of 2.3 million full-time jobs. This is not saying the labor force and demand will go away, but rather it will create a slow economic increase in the years to come.
“I think that it’s actually helping people to have healthcare that can’t afford it,” freshman Micah Ndiba said. “I don’t think [the CBO report] is saying people don’t have to work, because people still have to work whether they have healthcare or not, but people are having more opportunities to receive healthcare.
The CBO also sees the enrollment in exchanges in the years to come will rise sharply as people are familiarized with the new insurance options and the subsidies. The rise is expected to reach 22 million by 2016, and 24 million to 25 million people are expected to receive coverage each year through the exchanges.
According to the CBO it expects economic growth to be solid in the near term, but unemployment to remain elevated, finally dropping below six percent in 2017.
A significant part of the improvement in the unemployment rate is attributed to a decline in the labor force’s usually robust participation, the result of an unusually large number of people having stopped looking for work.
“I think it’s a scary thought and people are definitely going to have to work harder and definitely try to get ahead with their education to be able to find the opportunity to have jobs,” Ndiba said.
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