Where Will the New Jobs be in Health Care?
How the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Affects Health Care
Apr 8, 2009
Many are critical that the Obama administration is spending way too much money especially in such an economic crisis when most people are tightening belts and finding ways to reduce expenditures.
While it may take a PhD in economics, and then some, to truly understand this process, the basic premise is that in order to jump-start a depressed economy, money has to be invested and spent. It also needs to be spent wisely on the things most needed at the time.
During the last depression, expanding the World War II efforts was a major means of increasing spending to, in effect, spend America out of the depression. To some, the healthcare stimulus spending is a similar effort to help spend America out of this yet to be officially called depression.
Americans Pay More and Get Less Value
With recent reports showing that Americans are paying more for health care and receiving a lot less than other leading countries, there is little doubt that the health care industry in the U.S. is in dire need of help.
Americans spend approximately $2.4 trillion on health care each year. That is 2.5 times more than other leading nations such as Canada, Japan, France, the UK. and Germany. However, the cost-to-benefit ratio is far less than these nations receive. When compared to the emerging competitors such as China, India and Brazil, the cost-to-benefit gaps grows even wider. The quality of the care is also far less which is not acceptable.
The three areas that will be most affected by job growth under the healthcare stimulus plan are:
- Healthcare Information Technology (HIT)
- Medical and allied-health education and training
- Community health care
Nurses, Physicians, and Allied-health Education
Under the healthcare stimulus plan, nurses stand to benefit from funding of education for nurses. Nursing is often said to be the backbone of the health care system, and yet there is a critical shortage of nurses which is going to increase in part due to the fact that there are not enough nurse educators. As President Obama promised during his campaign, nurses will also gain additional funding to help nurses become nurse educators. And there is more funding to help others become nurses as well.
The plan also includes directives for training aspiring health care workers such as physicians, dentists, and other practitioners who will work in rural and other under served areas.
Community Health Care Stimulus
Clinics and primary care practice centers will be expanded to serve the uninsured and underinsured with basic health care services. Indian Health services were also addressed by the stimulus plan to expand health care services to Native Americans.
HIT and EMRs Drive Growth for Technology Jobs
Healthcare information technology (HIT) and electronic medical records (EMR) is a huge area where spending is being increased. It is necessary to increase spending in order to develop and implement programs which will eventually make a major difference in reducing costs of healthcare.
The job growth in the areas of software engineers, analysts and technologists as well as IT and IS specialists will be dramatic to help implement this plan. These along with jobs such as nursing informatics, and electronic medical records specialists are going to grow rapidly as well.
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