Posts Tagged ‘jobs’

February 5, 2010

President Obama: Focus on Jobs in the Health Workforce

President Obama –and the Congress for that matter–need to focus on JOBS in the HEALTH WORKFORCE.  The Bureau of  Labor Statistics reports that the health sector ranks high among the areas that will provide the greatest number of new jobs over the next decade.  Four million jobs will be created in the health care sector will be a leader in producing new jobs,  including high-skill, high-paying jobs like doctors and nurses.  Among the top ten occupations needed will be:  Registered nurses, home  health aides, personal and home care aides,  and nursing aides, orderlies and attendants. 

With the aging baby boomer population, the need for a greater number of trained people in the health professions goes well beyond nurses and home care workers.  Shortages across the professions will be exacerbated by the retirement of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and other professionals.  In 2004, 23 percent of licensed pharmacists, for example, indicated they were leaving the profession within the year and 80 percent of pharmacy directors said they would leave within the decade. Substantial retirements of faculty in all schools of the health professions add to the problem.

With the overwhelming need for a health workforce for the nation, President Obama should be focusing his Jobs Initiative on education and innovative training programs for the health workforce.  President Obama should be looking for ways to provide incentives to academic health centers and their health professions schools for new ideas and innovative ways to develop a quality health workforce in a short time frame. 

One way is to receive funding and other incentives to create new career ladders for those people who are already employed within the health system and want to raise their skill levels and receive education in one of the more-skilled professions (and this can include the myriad allied health, imaging, medical records and IT jobs that are critical to the system).

There should also be funding to health professions schools to create innovative, perhaps fast tracked, retraining programs for the thousands of people who are losing their jobs in America’s dying manufacturing industries. 

The Obama Administration needs to look beyond small business and the green industries with regard to JOBS.  The health workforce should be the priority when it comes to jobs.

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Posted in News, Policy, health workforce, jobs | 3 Comments »

October 29, 2009

Create Health Workforce Jobs for U.S. Economic Recovery

We all know that the employment picture in the U.S. continues to be dark. One in 10 Americans who wanted a job last month were unemployed. What many do not know is that private sector employment growth fell short of the number of new people entering the labor force by more than 500,00 jobs each year throughout the 1990s! The bottom line: Economists say the U.S. job creation engine has been stalled for the better part of a decade.  New enterprises are not coming on line. As older industries die, established industry and entrepreneurs are not entering the market place and using capital to create jobs.

 So where will jobs come from? Health care is an obvious choice. It’s time for a public policy to support this growth industry with a Jobs Bill for Health Care (similar to the post World War II GI bill). The bill would provide funds to train all comers – from the returning war vets to the unemployed, from the dying manufacturing industries to the recent high school graduates. This will produce not only the health workforce that the U.S. so desperately needs in the near and long term but also create a “product” that can be exported overseas – trainers for other countries’ healthcare challenges.

 In addition to direct investment, the government should ensure funding from the insurance industry and providers who do not now train health professionals but depend on the health workforce . Let’s ensure the health and economic future of the United States with a public-private partnership that makes sense.

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Posted in Health Reform, Policy, U.S. Economic Growth, health economics, health professions education, health workforce | No Comments »

August 20, 2009

Health care and jobs

The pressures to cut health care costs are enormous, but these cuts can also be a double-edged sword.  Certainly, no one would argue against cutting fraud and overuse.  But at a time when job creation is so important, the health sector is and will be a key player.  These jobs are not just for a broad variety of health care providers, but also for a large range of administrative and management positions.  A recent article points this out by focusing on individuals who cross over from other economic sectors to work in health care.  As health care exceeds one-sixth of the economy and one out of every ten jobs, it becomes increasingly difficult to disentangle needed job growth from excessive health care spending in terms of driving the economy.  This is especially true if there is some kind of health reform that increases access to a substantial number of persons who are currently either uninsured or underinsured.  As we have pointed out in our report, Out of  Order, Out of Time: The State of the Nation’s Health Workforce, we need to gain a more in-depth understanding of the kinds and numbers of health providers that are needed to take care of patients now and in the future.   Perhaps by engaging in this discussion we can address the complex issues around “right-sizing” health care.

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Posted in Health Reform, health economics, health workforce | No Comments »