One of the least appreciated and most logically inevitable side-affects of Obamacare is apparently hitting the radar fast and furious. This is from a top o' the page story in Marketwatch titled HEALTHCARE REFORM MAY BE HELPING OLDER WORKERS RETIRE:
Last month the number of employed workers who were at least 55-years old fell by 133,000, the largest drop in half a year, according to U.S. Labor Department data. Trends also show a slowdown: Over the first quarter of the year, there was an average monthly gain of 86,000 employed older workers, down sharply from a peak of almost 300,000 two years earlier.
"Why don't you take this job and
shove it up your ass sonny!"
As liberal economists have expected people are saying"I quit" now that they can get affordable healthcare cheap or for free. Note that if you quit your job to take a part-time job you might actually like or live off of investments your income will certainly drop a lot and so you can take advantage of either large subsidies or even Medicaid. A 57 year old roofer who has literally been breaking his back for decades putting his kids through school might like to live on his wife's salary if he knows that his spinal fusion operation will be paid for. One of our favorite and most accurate economists, lent this opinion:
“It is possible that the [Affordable Care Act] is allowing many of these workers to retire early now that they can get health care insurance outside of employment,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
It will be a few years before the ACA’s full labor-market impact is seen, he added.
“I think a drop in employment of 2% among older workers is certainly plausible,” Baker said. “We’ll see something among younger workers as well, primarily parents of small children.”/blockquote>
"I want my ACA!"
See, real traditional family values, a mom or reinvented dad staying home with the little kids will be buttressed by the ACA. Proving once again that the real Party of Family Values is the Democratic Party.