Senator: Health reform could create 10 million new jobs

Healthcare reform could end up creating as many as 10 million new jobs, one Democratic senator argued Friday.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) defended the prospect of healthcare reform more broadly as having the potential to create millions of jobs during a time of increased unemployment.

"Nationwide, small firms will spend $156 billion on health premiums this year," Landrieu wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. "In place of those high premiums, small business owners could employ 10 million additional workers—the entire state of Michigan—at minimum wage for a year."

Landrieu is actually an opponent of a key element of healthcare reform efforts proposed by her own party, the public (or "government-run") option, but said that reforming health insurance more general would benefit small businesses. The senator is chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

She said that health reform bills before Congress should address tax burden for sole-proprietor businesses, and pledged to work on alleviating those taxes in coming weeks.

"I am committed to working with my Senate colleagues and the Obama administration to ensure that the health-care reforms our small businesses desperately need are passed," she said. "Small businesses—and all Americans—can't go another pay check without meaningful reform."