ObamaCare, Creating Jobs? So Says New Report

Critics have called ObamaCare a job-killer and blamed it for reduced salaries, yet at least 90 new companies devoted to health care have cropped up with as many as 6,200 employees since the law kicked in, Bloomberg reports. One such company—and the biggest, with 900 workers—is Zenefits, which brokers health insurance for small businesses and offers human-resources software. "There’s a lot of opportunity for new market entrants," says company CEO Parker Conrad. "The ground is literally shifting under the feet of the incumbents." There's also Venrock Associates, a venture capital firm that's investing in eight ObamaCare-related startups. All this comes from PricewaterhouseCoopers' report on the entrepreneurial effect of ObamaCare.

"We thought it was striking how many entrepreneurs said to us, 'This has sparked innovation and entrepreneurship,'" says a managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers. While this may annoy ObamaCare critics, it's not so simple: Some companies were formed thanks to a related law that offers federal dollars to pay for electronic record systems in doctors' offices and hospitals. Meanwhile, Forbes notes that states with expanded Medicaid coverage have seen more new jobs than other parts of the country. As for ObamaCare itself, it has seen America's uninsured fall from 16.4% to 12.9%—yet the CBO projects that 31 million will remain uninsured by 2025, "demonstrating that any notion the law would create universal coverage was a pipe dream," the Tampa Bay Times reports. (More ObamaCare stories.)