Ask HN: The health care reform will create more jobs? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: The health care reform will create more jobs?

6 pointssinzone9 comments

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/mar/08/nancy-pelosi/pelosi-claims-health-care-reform-will-create-thous/

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Only IRS jobs. Expect the nursing shortage to get worse and doctors close to retirement to start closing their practices in droves. No, I'm not going to go into the details for you, the bill language can be found here: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3590/show

No idea. But it will definitely make it easier to change jobs, and it will definitely make it easier to strike out on your own.

I'm curious why you say it will make it easier to change jobs or strike out on your own? Only employers with 50 or more employees will be required to offer health care and the mandatory levels of insurance that everyone will be required to purchase are comparable in price to the plans already offered by insurers. The only differences seem to be for preexisting conditions. Those that don't currently have health care due to cost may end up worse off since they can be fined if they do not purchase a minimum level of health care.

Preexisting conditions are a huge issue, though; if the insurance companies dig hard enough (which they do) they can find a reason to deny almost anyone a policy. Do you have high blood pressure? High cholesterol? A low-functioning thyroid? Did you see a doctor because you strained your back when you were 19? Does your kid have asthma? No insurance for you!

Insurers have been known to dig in much more once you make serious claims trying to find something you didn't initially disclose to them so that they can invalidate your policy after the fact.

The bottom line is that the personal health care market is a scary, scary place for a very large number of people, not just people with cancer or heart disease. It's one thing to risk not being able to get coverage, or having your coverage taken away, when it's just you; it's an entirely different deal when you have a family to take care of.

If this reform bill is able to really address that concern, it will make it much easier for a lot of people to transition jobs or start off on their own.

To understand how bad the situation is now, assume that in some major metro areas, private health insurance for a family of 4 with no known pre-existing conditions might not be available at any price.

I went from a job at a company whom provided insurance because they could get a pretty decent deal by bargaining with their 150+ employees, to a company who doesn't provide insurance because you can't really bargain with 9 employees.

Luckily, the second job pays me enough to get insurance on my own and I still make more than what I did before, but if I had a family to think of that may not have been the case. For someone in that situation, it would likely be easier to make that jump because of the assistance the government can now provide to those who can't afford insurance on their own.

Not to mention, when the exchange opens up in 2014, more small businesses will be able to provide insurance to their employees and those who absolutely can't take a job with insurance will have more options.

Furthermore, with the tax credits small business will get for providing insurance to their employees, it might free up financial resources for business who already provide insurance to their employees, allowing them to expand their workforce.

Small businesses not being able to provide insurance seems to be a bit of a state by state issue. I've worked for three small businesses in the last ten years. All of them offered significantly better health insurance plans than the large companies I've worked for. The largest of those small businesses had just five employees. The last company I worked for ended up dropping their insurance plan, but that was a desperate cost cutting measure on the way towards bankruptcy. It seems that similar businesses in California (I'm in Nevada) don't offer health insurance due to the cost. My wifes insurance currently covers my wife and son. It's prohibitively expensive to add dependents to the plan and it's actually worse than the plan I had previously. Her employer has around 3k employees.

I keep seeing mixed arguments about the exchange. There doesn't seem to be any conclusive evidence that it is actually going to make health insurance more affordable for small businesses. The only thing that appears to make it more affordable is not the exchange itself, but the subsidies for small businesses that offer health insurance. That's just a cost shift to someone/somewhere else.

sure it will.. government jobs. IRS is planning on hiring 1000s

Whether or not it creates jobs, it will surely save jobs and that may be even more important. Health care is a cost that companies bear, and that cost has been rising at an absurd rate. Unless we do something to control that rate of increase, companies will have to start cutting to save costs and the easiest cuts to make are in staffing.

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