Jonathan Cohn counters repeated claims that the Affordable Care Act is a recession-prolonger and "job-killer":
[T]he best study I’ve seen on this subject is a new report from the Urban Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, examining the impact of Massachusetts health reform on that state’s job market. Yes, that’s the same law Romney signed as governor. Yes, that’s also the same law whose coverage scheme was a template for Obama’s. The report’s conclusion is unambiguous: "The evidence from Massachusetts would suggest that national health reform does not imply job loss and stymied economic growth."
The study is impressively thorough, too. It breaks down employment numbers by education, income, and part-time versus full-time status. No matter how they analyzed the data, they came up with no evidence that health reform had hurt the job market. "All" the reforms did was get insurance to many more people, providing them with better access to care and more financial security. This is consistent with predictions from the Congressional Budget Office, which determined reform’s only significant employment impact was a reduction in the labor force, primarily because people holding onto jobs just to keep insurance could finally retire.
The Dish 