House Speaker Nancy Pelosi guaranteed in March that passage of the health-care-reform bill would “almost immediately” create 400,000 jobs. Three months have passed since the president signed it into law. Not only has zero real job growth occurred, the first health-care-reform casualties — businesses and their employees — have begun to appear. For single moms trying to find jobs, however, the real pain is on the way.

The law will place new penalties on businesses that provide inadequate health-care benefits for their employees — “inadequate” meaning that an employee is eligible for federal subsidies. Employers who offer coverage will pay $3,000 for each employee who receives a subsidy, with the total penalty capped at $2,000 times the total number of employees minus 30 (the penalty for employers who don’t offer coverage). Companies with fewer than 50 employees are exempt.

And here’s the key part: These subsidies are contingent not only on the health benefits the employer offers, but also on the total income of the employee’s household relative to the poverty level. The math is simple. Low-income employees, especially those who are their households’ sole income-earners and/or have children, are more likely to qualify for federal subsidies, and thus more likely to bring with them a $3,000 penalty. Given the choice, whom will employers hire: a single person — or even better, a married person whose spouse works — or a single mom raising two or three kids?

It would be easy to dismiss this analysis as more right-wing claptrap, except the liberal Center for Budget Policies and Priorities came to the same conclusion.

The great jobs creator of Nancy Pelosi, the great plan to free Americans from worries about “health care,” will have the effect of furthering and prolonging unemployment and poverty.

– Eric Novack is chairman of both Arizonans For Health Care Freedom and the U.S. Health Freedom Coalition.