There are at least 1,000 fewer jobs in western Michigan because of Obamacare regulations according to a new study, WOOD-MI reports.
"We're talking about 1,000 jobs in west Michigan that would have been here absent the ACA," said Grand Valley State University Professor Leslie Muller, who helped conduct the study.
That number doesn't reflect the number of people who have lost hours because of the law, with 29 percent of companies saying they have limited employee's working times, often to less than 30 hours to sidestep the employer mandate for full-time workers.
"Firms are actually holding off on hiring or they're reducing their hiring that they were thinking they were going to be doing," Muller said.
The study found companies are not only ditching their hiring plans because of Obamacare, but they're also changing their health plans to lower costs. The predominant ways firms in the region are containing health care costs, Muller said, are offering more high-deductible plans and changing their prescription coverage.