From EPI: Affordable Care Act repeal will cost 1.2 million jobs

This week, while Congress is home on recess, individuals across the country are speaking out at townhall meetings about the need to protect the Affordable Care Act. You may have heard the numbers: If the ACA is repealed, approximately 30 million individuals could lose their health care coverage. But one number you may not have heard is that ACA repeal would also result in the loss of 1.2 million jobs. That’s because if families are forced to spend more out of pocket for health care, they’ll have less money to spend on other basic necessities like food and rent. Fewer dollars spent at grocery stores and other businesses means fewer jobs. Every state would lose jobs if the ACA is repealed. Check out EPI’s interactive map to see how many jobs would be lost in your state.

How would repealing the ACA affect your state? See how repeal would affect people across the country

ACA repeal would cut federal spending nationwide by roughly $109 billion in 2019 and taxes by roughly $70 billion in 2019. Benefit cuts would negatively impact cash-constrained households, while tax cuts will disproportionally go to high-income households. States that will be most negatively impacted by the repeal of the ACA are those who have expanded spending (and thus will lose that expansion). The top 15 job-losing states, as measured by jobs lost as a share of both the total employment and the share of residents under age 65, are Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia. Click here to see how many jobs will be lost in your state if the ACA is repealed. Please let your elected official know that repealing the Affordable Care Act would be devastating for the residents of your state, costing them health and financial security as well as jobs.