The Affordable Care Act appears to have delivered a shot in the arm to Arizona’s job market.

It turns out that expanding coverage isn’t just about the health of the uninsured, but about the health of Arizona’s employment numbers. More than a few people tried to paint the Affordable Care Act as a “jobs killing” bill when the law’s potential impact was being debated. Years later there are measurable results to discuss, and the state Department of Administration says you can thank the law for roughly 10,100 new Arizona health care jobs in just the past year.
No one had a 100-percent accurate crystal ball then, just as we do not have one now. The full impact of the Affordable Care Act has yet to be assessed. But 10,000 new jobs and 300,000 people with coverage doesn’t sound like such a bad start.