ACA, the job killer.
Republicans used the job killing mantra to try and stop the passage of the Affordable Care Act. At one time, they even called one of their bills the "Repealing the Job Killing Health Care Law Act." They made claims that "Obamacare" would destroy anywhere from 1.6 million jobs to 10 million.
Cry me a river.
Several news and information sites from factcheck.org to the Washington Post put the kibosh on that claim.
I'm going a step further. It's an argument that I've seen before, but it bears repeating: the ACA will create millions of jobs.
34 million Americans will be eligible for health care under the new law. Clinics and hospitals will be available to them.
I've worked as an RN in the past for both clinics and hospitals. It takes a lot of personnel to run them. In clinics, you need secretaries, insurance clerks, docs, office equipment, computers, and filled stock and supplies. In hospitals, aside from doctors, you need RNs, LVNs, and that most under appreciated, but most valuable of all employees, nurses' aides. You need pharmacists and pharmacy techs; nutritionists, physical therapists and physical therapy aides; respiratory therapists and respiratory therapy aides; phlebotomists and lab techs, radiologists and radiology techs; and other allied health professionals. Then, you have the non-health staff. House keeping, janitors, waste /disposal personnel. Most hospitals have food preparation for both patients and staff/visitors. They need cooks and servers. Electricians and plumbers. Supply clerks are needed. That also includes a bonanza for those who supply hospitals such as the builders and distributors of IV equipment, foley kits, hospital beds, linens, syringes, all that nasty beeping equipment that keeps patients awake all night; transportation to make it all possible. Then, you have the genuine trickle down effect of local businesses that operate near to these enterprises such as restaurants, grocery stores, Starbucks, video rentals, etc.
The downside is that there probably won't be enough professionals to handle the surge of new eligible patients. Even though I'm retired, I still get my email flooded with offers from nurse staffing agencies looking for nurses locally and all over the country. The upside might be that schools and instructors will have to be created to handle the situation.
In any event, this is just theorizing on my part. I could be wrong. But, 34 million people suddenly eligible for health care is a whole lot. Primary care clinics will be handling the brunt of it, but hospitals will be getting a whole lot of them as well. Time will tell. But, ACA definitely won't be a job killer.
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