I have to choose my courses now, because I want to go into healthcare. If they repeal ObamaCare, does the field still have a rosy future?
Answering this question today, requires not a forecast but a crystal ball. Every single person in our country is going to be directly impacted by the government’s decisions. Let us consider healthcare in the USA as a source of employment. Regardless of the government, the best way to have a future in healthcare is technical training. Here is why.
Over eight years ago, a fledgling Obama administration kicked off a health-reform program, ObamaCare. This drastically changed US employment over the coming decade. Our economy was in recession and needed job creation. The result was an unsustainable employment bubble in the healthcare sector.
One sector stood apart, as the rest of the economy shed 9 million jobs between 2008 and 2010. Healthcare collectively gained more than 550,000 jobs, with a track record of adding jobs every single month during those dark days.
With new legislation and millions of new health insurance policies issued, employment in the health sector jumped almost 9% between 2012 and 2013. According to reports, 15.5 million people now work in healthcare. However, the industry driven by government spending and an aging population. The sector is seen as recession-proof, observed CEO Mark Prip, Medicare Supplement Insurance provider.
Is this boost to employment a gift? The healthcare boom could be a bubble, which could implode with serious consequences. Since women occupy a high percentage of healthcare jobs, they are more vulnerable.
All of these jobs increase the cost of healthcare. The rapid expansion of healthcare acts as a drag on the rest of the economy. It creates a larger healthcare bill that employers, patients and taxpayers must burden.
The current system is bloated with non-medically-trained office staff, administrators and assistants. This resulted in higher costs and poorer care. There are hundreds-of-thousands of middle class jobs in the health insurance industry, which keep premiums high. Again, not good news for patients.
In a sink-or-swim scenario, those with a higher level of training will be the survivors. Healthcare means exactly that, caring for people in need. So, medical and graduate-level skills learned in college will help protect you. Those out of college are turning to online MPH programs to better insulate themselves from job insecurity.
The US healthcare industry is grossly inefficient and long overdue for some job shedding. Theoretically, culling jobs with no medical training would have no adverse effect on patient care. If and when this finally happens, the cuts fall on millions of women office workers and administrative staff in the healthcare sector.
You treat a disease, you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you, you’ll win, no matter what the outcome… Patch Adams.
Jacob Maslow is the founder and editor of Legal Scoops.