Last week, The Beacon Hill Institute, a free-market think tank, released a study showing that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s 2006 health-care plan has cost the state more than 18,000 jobs. The Romney campaign dismissed the study claiming that “health care cost increases have slowed since the passage of reform.” But a February 2010 Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy (DHCFP) study concludes that health insurance premiums have increased faster in Massachusetts than in the rest of the nation, since reform became law.

The Beacon Hill job-loss study is premised on the idea that reform-induced higher health spending led to less investment in job creation. “In the private sector, the same resources could have been used to fund investment, job creation and consumer spending, which would have yielded better economic performance,” the Beacon Hill study wrote.