Obamacare's toll on jobs, insurance costs subject to debate

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Congressional Republicans claimed President Obama's looming healthcare reform act was already costing jobs and causing insurance premiums to soar.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on "Fox News Sunday" that whatever jobs the business community was creating were low-paying part-time work with no insurance benefits because of so-called Obamacare.

"When you look at what has transpired since Obamacare has moved forward, we've created more than 840,000 jobs in this country -- more than 90 percent of them have been part-time because of Obamacare," said McCarthy, "That creates a part-time economy, part-time opportunities. And in the end, it creates a part-time America."

McCarthy, the Republican Whip in the House of Representatives, also cited a letter he said he received from the widowed mother of one of his staff members who claimed her premiums had jumped to levels she could no longer afford. "He cannot ignore this problem," he said. "This is an opportunity when you find that Obamacare is not going to work, to delay it."

A Democratic senator, however, told Fox he had doubts about the veracity of such accounts. "I don't believe everything an insurance company says," said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., "I'm sure the insurance company says, well, this is because of the Affordable Care Act. These are the same guys who were kicking people off of policies and turning people away from policies because they have pre-existing condition."

Kane predicted the competition among companies on the insurance exchanges that are key to Obamacare would soon create a menu of policies that will cost significantly less than current open-market coverage.