Announced Monday, the Obama administration is planning to spend $1 billion to hire, train and deploy healthcare workers. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, created as part of the Affordable Care Act, will administer and oversee the program, called the Health Care Innovation Challenge. The $1 billion in funds will be awarded as grants to doctors, community groups, local government and other organizations that work with Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP patients.  Qualified applicants will propose models that expand the healthcare workforce while reducing the cost of delivering care. There will be an emphasis on speed, with new programs expected to be running within six months of funding. The Health Care Innovation Challenge will award grants by March of 2012.

Ironically, Obama’s landmark legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), has been predicted to destroy 100,000s of jobs. Recently, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reported on the effects of one of PPACA’s main provisions, the health insurance premium tax, which will be implemented in 2014. As revealed by the NFIB, health insurers are expected to pass the burden of the tax onto small businesses, leading to a loss of 125,000 to 249,000 jobs.

Furthermore, the President’s “jobs” bill and some members of Congress have proposed requiring that prescription drug manufacturers pay rebates to the federal government for drugs dispensed to Medicaid/Medicare dual-eligible beneficiaries and other low-income seniors through the Medicare Part D program.  The reduced revenue is likely to substantially affect the pharmaceutical industry. In a report by the American Action Forum, we find that by 2021 the proposal could reduce pharmaceutical and related employment by up to 238,000 jobs.

As the evidence shows, the last thing Obama’s initiatives are going to accomplish is job creation, the new Health Care Innovation Challenge included. This proposal, like all others, increases government spending under the pretense of bolstering the economy and creating jobs; an image the Obama administration is trying to construct in anticipation of the 2012 election.