Healthcare law threatens California jobs, business group says
California could lose more than 26,000 jobs as a result of a tax provision in the federal healthcare law, a small-business advocacy group said.
A study by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation found that employment in the Golden State may see a loss of from 14,322 to 26,296 jobs by 2022 because of the Health Insurance Tax provision.
The NFIB is one of the biggest opponents of the federal healthcare law and joined in the Supreme Court lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.
“Businesses in California are struggling under unprecedented costs from taxes and regulations. We need to do all that we can to increase jobs, not reduce them,” said John Kabateck, the NFIB’s California director in a statement.
“This destructive tax simply must go, if we are ever to return to the thriving culture of growth and entrepreneurship that Californians once knew.”
The NFIB estimates the small business community will be hit with over $100 billion over a decade in new taxes beginning in 2014 because of the federal healthcare law.
A 2012 study by the Bay Area Council found that President Obama’s Affordable Healthcare Act will create about 96,000 jobs in California.
The NFIB study is flawed, said Micah Weinberg, senior policy advisor for the Bay Area Council, adding that the council does not advocate for the Health Insurance Tax.
“We looked at the net effect of the law, taking into account both economic stimuli and drags on job growth,” Weinberg said. “Looking just at the impact of a tax in isolation is essentially meaningless.”
The increases the council forecast and the reductions by the NFIB are a small fraction of the state’s job base, Weinberg said.
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