Health Care Reform Expected to Impact Many Jobs

Posted in Health Insurance

April 29th, 2010

The recent passage of health care reform has resulted in lot of major changes to the industry and more are expected to come, including a significant impact on health care and insurance workers. While all experts are not in complete agreement, some say that there will be both positive and negative effects for employees of health insurance as well as other areas of the health care sector.

Job Gains or Losses?

There have been some conflicting reports released by experts who are making predictions about the outcome of the work force as a result of health care reform. Of course, there have been plenty of predictions regarding health insurance changes, but now reports show that we may lose or gain tons of jobs in the sector, which could be good or bad news, depending on who you ask.

For instance, the Center for American Progress is predicting that health care reform will add four million new jobs to the economy in the next 10 years. On the other hand, the Heritage Foundation predicts a loss of 690,000 jobs as a result of the law. The conflicting data is not uncommon seeing that many of the changes won’t be made for several years and their impact is still unknown.

However, it is still nice to get slightly more accurate insight into what could occur.

Specific Jobs Impacted by Health Care Reform

Here are a few predictions about what could happen with various sectors of the health care industry, including health insurance:

• Insurance agents: Some think that insurance agents will likely see more business since around 32 million Americans will be required to purchase health insurance coverage by 2014. However, there are also predictions that health insurance companies may suffer since the new law requires them to use 80 percent of their premium dollars for claims and leaves them 20 percent to pay their bills. Also, with new insurance exchanges cropping up in a few short years, the need for an agent may diminish some.
• Physicians: There have already been reports that a severe shortage of physicians is expected over the next 10 years, which means those currently working will be overworked if more aren’t trained soon. But that’s not the only predicted impact. Some doctors will enjoy higher Medicare payments under health care reform; however, some say the potential 10 percent increase incentive still may not be enough since it will be far below market value.
• Entrepreneurs: Some say the self-employed and entrepreneurs may finally catch a break with their health insurance under the new reform. Before, large group insurance plans offered the best advantages, but now options will be available for help lower health insurance costs so that those who are not working for a major company don’t have to feel obligated to do so just to get quality coverage.

Well, there looks to be both good news and not-so-great news on the job front by workers affected by health care reform. But only time will tell what the true impact of the law will be.