Author: Marc Stier

Health Care Reform and Job Creation in Pennsylvania, 2010-2019  Marc Stier, Ph.D.[1] President Barack Obama has said that “health care reform is our jobs program.”[2]  But while economists largely agree with the President that health care reform will, in a number of different ways, lead to job growth, there have been only a few attempts to quantify the job creating benefits of health care reform. This paper draws on that research to quantify the number of jobs likely to be created in Pennsylvania in the ten years between 2010 and 2019. Our conclusion is that over this period, between 150,000 and 225,000 new jobs will be added to the Pennsylvania economy as a result of health care reform. Health care accounts for one-seventh of the national economy and health care reform will make dramatic changes in our health care system. It would be incredible if these changes did not have… Continue reading

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is now law but the Republicans in Washington and the states are not ready to accept it. In Pennsylvania, Republican Attorney General and Gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett has joined his colleagues from other states in filing a suit to have the whole law overturned by the courts. And he’s done so, in part, on the grounds that the the ACA will kill jobs in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The Republican Party has fought every effort by President Obama and Governor Rendell to create jobs. So it’s ironic to see them attacking the ACA on these grounds. And more importantly, their argument is totally backwards. For two reasons, the ACA will create jobs all over the country and especially in Pennsylvania. First, health care reform will slow the growth in health care costs and that will lead to new jobs. Employer-paid health insurance premiums are, like wages… Continue reading