Affordable Care Act Repeal Would Cost Kentucky 56,000 Jobs

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 -- The Economic Policy Institute issued the following news release:

According to a forthcoming report from the Economic Policy Institute, repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would cost Kentucky's economy $3.4 billion and 56,000 jobs by 2019. Kentucky will lose more jobs as a share of its under-65 population than every state but New Mexico.

Should the ACA be repealed, Kentucky would lose $259 million in subsidies to help working families buy affordable insurance, as well as $3.8 billion in federal Medicaid spending. This spending loss is more than 2 percent of the state's GDP. Meanwhile, high-income Kentuckians would receive a tax cut of $677 million. Because the cuts to spending are greater than the tax cuts, and because the spending in ACA is targeted to lower-income Americans who tend to spend more of their take-home pay, the overall effect of repealing the ACA would be less money in Kentucky's economy and fewer jobs created.

"If the ACA is repealed, Kentuckians' purchasing power will be reduced and this will translate into less spending and hence fewer jobs in their state's economy," said EPI Research and Policy Director Josh Bivens. "Meanwhile, 486,000 Kentuckians would lose health insurance coverage. ACA repeal is simply not a good deal for Kentucky."

This data is contained in a forthcoming Economic Policy Institute report. For details and an embargoed copy, please email news@epi.org.

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