GOP Obamacare Repeal Could Cost Florida 83,000 Jobs, Cut $8.6 Billion From Economy
Let's get one thing out of the way: By almost every expert analysis, the American Health Care Act is a moral nightmare that will seriously harm the poor and defenseless. Cutting $880 billion from Medicaid will bankrupt families and strip coverage from 200,000 poor black and Hispanic children in Florida. That should be reason enough not to support it.
Florida's Republican lawmakers have already shown they won't vote against the AHCA on moral qualms alone. Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Mario Diaz-Balart voted for the House version of the American Health Care Act because they're willing to trade a few dead cancer patients to boost the state health-care economy. Ditto Gov. Rick Scott, who supports the AHCA.
But would the GOP's Obamacare repeal actually boost Florida's economy? In fact, a new study suggests the opposite: A George Washington University analysis estimates that 83,000 jobs will vanish from the Florida economy by 2026 if the AHCA passes. The Obamacare repeal would also axe the state's Gross State Economic Product by a staggering $8.6 billion in that same timeframe. Those losses are expected to continue past 2026 if legislators don't change anything by then.
"By 2026, 924,000 fewer people would have jobs" at the national level, the study warns. "Gross state products would drop by $93 billion and business output would be $148 billion lower. These downward trends would continue after 2026."
Read more: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/obamacare-repeal-bill-would-cost-florida-83000-jobs-cut-86-billion-from-economy-ahca-study-warns-9426646
