text: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released a report, which included the economic impacts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Many have mischaracterized the report, claiming that the ACA will directly cost the American economy upwards of two million jobs. The report actually states, and CBO director Douglas Elmendorf confirmed yesterday before the House Budget Committee, that the ACA will reduce the total number of hours worked across the economy by an amount equivalent to about 2 million full-time workers over the next 10 years. These estimates reflect workers, not jobs. The ACA will actually give workers the freedom to work less because they will no longer need to work longer hours or remain trapped in their jobs to hold on to affordable health insurance.