(Bloomberg Politics) — Since its inception, critics of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)—or Obamacare, as it is popularly known—have warned that the legislation will prove disastrous for the nation.
From dire predictions of job losses in the millions, exploding premiums, a steep jump in the number of uninsured Americans, and a return to economic recession, the pessimistic prognostication from many of the current crop of Republican presidential hopefuls has been especially pronounced.
But as the country heads into the second full year under PPACA, there has been scant evidence of many of the doom and gloom scenarios made by the law's staunchest critics.
For instance, the United States is currently in the midst of an employment boom, with a record 59 straight months of job creation, including the period that overlaps with PPACAs 2014 start date. The number of uninsured Americans has plummeted as a result of the law, and an impressive 11.4 million Americans have now signed up for coverage. As a result, the rate in the rise of health care costs has slowed to a record low. To top things off, the nation's economy grew in 2014 at the fastest rate since the great recession.
On Thursday, a report by Bloomberg Business further challenged the notion that PPACA presents an unsustainable burden on large and small businesses. Among the report's findings:
PPACA is putting such a small dent in the profits of U.S. companies that many refer to its impact as "not material" or "not significant," according to a Bloomberg review of conference-call transcripts and interviews with major U.S. employers.
In addition to slowing the rise of health care costs, the report found that the cost of implementing Obamacare for many businesses was much more modest than many politicians had feared.
Here's a quick look back at some of the sternest warnings from some of the Republicans who are likely to run for president.
Ted Cruz
Before presenting a bill in 2013 to defund PPACA, Sen. Ted Cruz also warned that the law would sure send the country back into recession.
"It will hurt the economy, it will kill jobs, it will make life harder for Texans and for Americans all across our great country," Cruz said during a town hall hosted by the conservative group Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.
"Framing this conversation in terms of ensuring economic growth comes back and preventing a recession is critically important," he continued, adding that the law needed to be repealed because "it cedes permanent massive control of health care to the federal government, which I think is fundamentally wrong. It puts federal government bureaucrats between each of us and our doctors. But it also would dramatically impact economic growth and push us into another recession."Rand Paul
In a 2013 interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul raised the possibility that the legislation would force states into bankruptcy.
"I think that what's going to come out of Obamacare is worse than anybody can imagine. I think it will lead to bankruptcy in the states that are fully embracing it. I think it will lead to less people having an insurance as they find out the insurance is so much more expensive than their current plan," Paul argued. "Not only will they not have to be able to choose the same doctor that they had, they may not be able to afford the same insurance. The other thing that's going to happen is, maybe your employer says, for me to negotiate contracts it's cheaper for me to pay the penalty, which the penalty is pretty cheap compared with insurance. A lot of people have insurance currently may lose their insurance. So I think it's a disaster. Even its authors are saying it may not work, so I think we should delay the whole thing."
Scott Walker
