Is the Affordable Care Act Different from Romneycare? A Labor Economics Perspective

32 Pages Posted: 30 Aug 2013 Last revised: 1 Dec 2024

See all articles by Casey B. Mulligan

Casey B. Mulligan

University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: August 2013

Abstract

Measured in percentage points, the Affordable Care Act will, by 2015, add about fourteen times more to average marginal labor income tax rates nationwide than the Massachusetts health reform added to average rates in Massachusetts following its 2006 statewide health reform. The rate impacts are different between the two laws for several reasons, especially that: the populations subject to the two laws are different, the Affordable Care Act's employer penalty is an order of magnitude greater, before either reform Massachusetts had already been offering more means-tested and employment-tested health insurance assistance than other states had, and the subsidized health insurance plans created by the Massachusetts reform were less substitutable for employer-provided insurance than are the subsidized plans to be created nationwide next year.

Suggested Citation

Mulligan, Casey B., Is the Affordable Care Act Different from Romneycare? A Labor Economics Perspective (August 2013). NBER Working Paper No. w19366, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2318269

Casey B. Mulligan (Contact Author)

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