Pelosi...on New Report That Health Reform Will Create 4 Million More Jobs Over the Next Decade

[ProSense]

Pelosi Statement on New Report That Health Reform Will Create 4 Million More Jobs Over the Next Decade

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement on a new report released today by the Center for American Progress that shows that health insurance reform will create up to 4 million more jobs over the next decade than would be created without reform. The report finds that health care reform could increase the number of jobs in the United States by about 250,000 to 400,000 per year over the coming decade.

“We know that health insurance reform will help save lives, save money, and save Medicare. But Americans need to know that reform will actually save and create millions more jobs—lessening the burden of skyrocketing costs on small and medium-sized businesses all across America. Reform is critical to the health of our economy and to the health of our people.”

[doc03]

1. How would it create any jobs? If anything it will

destroy jobs. I think this whole HCR debate has employers scared to hire anyone not knowing what the costs will be. They are not satisfied with that after they ram it down our throats they will start on Cap and Trade another issue that will scare the hell out of employers.

[pocoloco]

2. Money counters??

[nightrain]

10. yeah, it's rather unclear what kinds of jobs wd be created--more denial clerks? nurses? therapists?

Here's a quote from the report--

"Figure 2 shows the impact of slowing premium
growth on employment in 2016 in different industries.
We estimate more than 200,000 new jobs in
manufacturing and nearly 900,000 jobs in services.

Two additional aspects of reform will affect employment.
First, employment in the health care industry
will be affected by the amount spent on medicine.
Reductions in administrative expenses will reduce
the need for clerical workers, and better health care
delivery could shift workers from inpatient to more
appropriate outpatient settings. We assume that the
effect of health care spending on the need for health
care workers is proportional to total dollars spent,
that is, a 1 percent decline in health care costs or
premiums results in a 1 percent decline in employment
in the health care industry.9 The total change
in health spending and premiums we model is from
the second study by Cutler and his co-authors. They
estimate that overall medical costs will decline by
about 4 percent and premiums will decline by 8.4
percent in 2019."


It's quite unclear to me why there would be the claimed increases in employment in manufacturing, for example. And the claims for reduction in clerical workers? Since I work in healthcare and have intimate knowledge of insurance claims/denial/approvals etc, that claim seems absurd. "Better health care delivery COULD shift workers from inpatient to more appropriate outpatient settings." I sincerely doubt that would be the case in the near future. There's such a backlog of postponed, delayed care/treatment/surgery, etc for 20+ years, it's going to be quite a while for us to get to the point that shift from inpatient to outpatient would actually transpire.

This article seems to me to be more "theoretical" and "hopeful" rather than based on the actual situation we are facing of an enormous backlog of care. AFAIK, this report contains more assumptions than facts.

[DrToast]

3. You're eating up those right-wing talking points

Did you bother to read the article? It pretty clearly outlines out it will create jobs.

[GMA]

6. You believe this report?

Why?

[cherokeeprogressive]

14. I read the article.

"One important way to create jobs is to slow the growth of medical spending."

"we estimate that moderate medical savings from health care modernization as envisioned under the legislation now before Congress would lead to an average of 250,000 additional jobs created annually. Under the larger assumption about savings due to health care reform, 400,000 new jobs a year would be created on average."

"President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors recently estimated that health care reform would create 320,000 additional jobs for some period of time."

"if successful, its provisions can lower the costs of business and increase both the number of jobs by 250,000 to 400,000 annually over the next decade"

Yeah, the how, other than "lowering the cost of business" is about a clear as mud. Care to point out HOW those jobs will be created, as per the report?

Thanks in advance.

[levander]

4. When you create a bill that throws money at an industry..

yeah, the industry has to hire more people... Nobody thought this was a pro HCR bill thread did they?

If they had implemented any kinds of cost controls in the bill, then the health care industry wouldn't be hiring so many new people.

Did Bush even try something this tasteless, where he pushed how many financial jobs would be created because of the bank bailout?

[DrToast]

5. You also failed to read the article. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 teabags

[doc03]

7. First of all you have to believe it will cut costs, I can't

see it cutting any costs other rationing health-care for union workers and Medicare recipients. Forcing people to buy insurance will give the insurance companies even more money.

[boppers]

8. More people who can see doctors, more doctors needed to see them.

More people can get medical treatment, more people need to make the treatment equipment, facilities.

Heck, even the argument that it's an "insurance giveaway" still points to insurance companies need more people (jobs) to process applications and claims...

[dflprincess]

9. Insurance doesn't mean you get to see a doctor

Whether or not a person will be able to afford care all depends on how high the copays, deductibles and other out of pockets are. The House bill allows annual deductibles of $1,500 and annual out of pockets of $5,000 for a single/ $10,000 for a family (plus premiums and any services not covered).

All either the House or Senate bills do is "cover" people and, as was driven home to us in "Sicko", "coverage" does not mean you'll get care before it becomes urgent, nor does it prevent financial ruin.

However, I'm sure the insurance companies will be creating all sorts of new jobs to help with the millions that will be forced to buy their shoddy products (there's going to be an awful lot more claims to find reasons to deny). Let's just hope those jobs are in the U.S. and not in other countries.

[area51]

16. Excellent points. (n/t)

[Cha]

11. Yes, anyone could see how

this will create more jobs all over the associated fields except those who are in denial and always looking for a downer.

[shraby]

12. I opened this thread expecting to see a discussion about

what was in the article. What I got was a bunch of naysaying, meanness and nastiness. No discussion on how it could happen, no discussion on how the bill was rated by the CBO to save money for the country, no discussion about how many people WON'T die if they are able to be insured, NO DISCUSSION whatever.
I fully expect my post to be trashed rather quickly.

[nightrain]

13. what did you think of the article?

[TheKentuckian]

15. Maybe but its not THIS bill, especially. Its any bill that adds people into the system

This one will have a limited footprint compared to about anything else imaginable because of course the increase to actual access to health care will be negligible.

Of course we don't actually care if people get the services they need to live and improve the quality of their lives as long as we can pass out bootstraps to choke people with when they fail to be able to pull themselves up by them. Oh the stigma the poor will face when everyone else's coverage goes to shit in the mandated ghetto that we'll all live in, that'll just be one more bullshit item to blame the poor for in the end.