CBO triples estimate of Obamacare work force cuts to 2.3 million

By Sarah Hurtubise | The Daily Caller

Obamacare is now expected to take 2.3 million full-time workers out of the labor market through 2021 while insuring 2 million fewer Americans in 2014 than expected, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.

The overall result of Affordable Care Act regulation will be a 1.5 percent to 2 percent reduction in the numbers of hours worked between 2017 and 2024, the CBO concluded in its 2014 Budget and Economic Outlook.

The updated numbers are nearly triple the 2011 estimate, which found that Obamacare would push just 800,000 people would leave the work force.

The reduction will largely be due to people opting out of work. The biggest culprit remains premium subsidies, a significant transfer of wealth to those making under 400 percent of the federal poverty level. Because the amount of subsidies and eligibility decline as income rises, the structure makes work “less attractive,” CBO analysts wrote.

at The Daily Caller.

The post CBO triples estimate of Obamacare work force cuts to 2.3 million appeared first on Watchdog.org.