Due to the economy crisis, many business jobs are getting cut left and right all over the country, but healthcare is actually hiring.
Even though the amount of employees on nonfarm payrolls fell by more than 2 million between December ‘07 and December ‘08, the healthcare portion added an astonishing 30,000 jobs.
These numbers included more than 14,000 jobs in ambulatory healthcare services, almost 12,000 hospital jobs, 5000 jobs in home and health services and 5,500 in residential care facilities and nursing homes.
Because of the population getting older and new federal money being brought in to support healthcare, the growth is expected to continue.
Although Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, extends most of his energy working on our disastrous financial situation, he spoke briefly at his company’s conference, on January 12 in San Francisco, to deal with the nation’s troubling health-care system. During the luncheon speech, Dimon said that part of dealing with the financial crisis is to restore our health-care system. He urged the U.S. to offer universal coverage for all citizens.
He told the listeners that it’s unethical that almost 50 million Americans are uninsured, many working or investing in companies that offer services to the $2 trillion health-care economy. He went on to say that statistics show that the U.S. spends two times as much as the ordinary OECD country does on health-care, but our life-expectancy is below average.
Not offering any new ways to deal with the current problem, he called for universal coverage, as it will expand the present employer based system. He also said that the present tax subsides for employer-sponsored insurance are not right, and he asked for incentives that support entrepreneurial solutions and demand both corporate and individual responsibility.
He claims that people who are not covered make the system more expensive. He said “if you don’t cover people, they will be a burden on everybody else.” This said, he called for the health-care situation to be fixed ASAP for a more effective country.
The Washington Post (12/12, Connolly) discloses that Democratic leaders and president-elect Obama are working on plans to increase health amenities in January’s economic recovery legislation. They profess that putting an enormous amount of money into an assortment of health programs will give the economy a much needed lift and begin to lay the pavement for a more expansive healthcare reform package.
More federal Medicaid spending has already been guaranteed by Obama for the stimulus package. A huge investment in health information technology also has been promised by Obama. Currently, discussions are going on about increasing money to retrain medical workers, enlarging the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and broadening COBRA.
An executive vice president at AARP, Nancy LeaMond, views these endeavors as a great beginning towards the goal of a more expansive health reform.