February 21, 2014
There’s been a lot of hand wringing in Washington policy circles about the Affordable Care Act. One of the main complaints from the DC elite crowd is that the ACA will slow growth and devastate the economy.
But here at CEPR we deal in facts. And we see the fact that some workers are recognizing their new freedom as a result of being able to buy affordable insurance on the individual market as a good thing. This was one of the points of the Affordable Care Act. People who were once stuck in jobs they hated because they needed the health insurance can now find affordable health care. Older workers in physically demanding jobs can cut back on their hours. People can quit their unsatisfying jobs to realize their dream of starting a small business .
Would Universal Medicare have been better? There are reasons for thinking it would be. But the ACA is what we got, and the majority of the criticisms of the ACA just don’t match the facts. It’s the same old story: workers get some bargaining power and people in Washington are angry. The folks looking for cheap labor are unhappy that good help might be harder to find, so they make false claims that aren’t supported by the data.
This is what CEPR does. We research and analyze the facts and we tell the truth without the spin. We make some enemies along the way, which makes us proud. But it also puts us in an almost untenable position when it comes to funding our work. We don’t play the game, so we need your help. Please click here to make a donation to CEPR. Help us to keep making them mad with the truth.
Thanks,
Dean, Mark and CEPR Staff
