Agreed. And if the speed doesn't kill 'em, the stretch to the bars will.
Posted on 01/11/2018 9:53:37 AM PST by nickcarraway
In the American labor market, services are the new steel.
This moment was inevitable. It just wasn’t supposed to happen so soon.
Due to the inexorable aging of the country—and equally unstoppable growth in medical spending—it was long obvious that health-care jobs would slowly take up more and more of the economy. But in the last quarter, for the first time in history, health care has surpassed manufacturing and retail, the most significant job engines of the 20th century, to become the largest source of jobs in the U.S.
In 2000, there were 7 million more workers in manufacturing than in health care. At the beginning of the Great Recession, there were 2.4 million more workers in retail than health care. In 2017, health care surpassed both.
There are several drivers of the health-care jobs boom. The first is something so obvious that it might actually be underrated, since it is rarely a proper news story in its own right: Americans, as a group, are getting older.
By 2025, one-quarter of the workforce will be older than 55. That share will have doubled in just 30 years. The graying of the nation will have widespread economic and political implications, like declining productivity and electoral showdowns between a young, diverse workforce and an older, whiter retirement bloc. But the most obvious effect of an aging country is that it needs more care—and that means more workers.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Health care is the biggest government bubble there is, a progressive/nanny-state monster, funded by massive debt, with manipulated interest rates, in our printed, fiat currency - courtesy of the Federal Reserve.
Technology can help with the problem of America getting older and needing care. With Apple phones being able to respond to vital stats, older people can stay in their homes, and their medical needs can be monitored by their doctors, rather than having to live in nursing homes. That will be much cheaper and safer for the elderly.
I agree, having worked on the financial side of the industry. The only problem is when you are sick, do you want Dr. Nick from the Simpsons or do you want the quality (and associated cost) of a Mayo Clinic?
A man who lived through the depression told me that when there were no rumors of work, he and his contemporaries all ended up at the pool hall trying to hustle each other out of a nickel, but none of them had a nickel anyway.
There has to be money coming into this elderly-patient—>doctor—>insurance cycle, or it will run dry.
That's a false choice. We can have ever-improving quality at lower overall cost. America does it all the time in many industries, from computers to food to travel. You have experience in health-care finance - what would you change to improve quality and lower cost??
Aren’t we hearing of manufacturing coming back to the States? Maybe it will eventually even itself out.
Here’s the story in a couple of sentences. The number of physicians has not risen substantially, and physicians salaries have not risen substantially - yet health care costs and health care expenses as a proportion of the GDP have risen substantially. Why? Because the number of administrators in health care has risen at an absolutely alarming rate.
This is driven largely by the grossly erroneous conclusion by government bean counters (and the legislators they advise) that great health can be achieved simply by putting in place ‘standardized’ treatment algorithms and measures of outcome. This is criminally simplistic, and dangerous - not to mention highly unlikely to lead to health care savings.
This approach to medicine is the brain child of some of the worst clinicians that have ever had MD after their names (personal experience), and who have made their careers essentially as statisticians. They don’t create cures, they don’t help patients, and they don’t add to the medical armamentarium - but they sit in judgment about what REAL physicians do. The most consistent message that they deliver is that ‘less should be done’, and that quality health care is best achieved by using ‘one size fits all’ measuring sticks of ‘good’ medicine and standardizing the therapy patients get. Most of these people have limited clinical experience or responsibilities, and have little understanding that patients are individuals, all with their own unique biology, and that biological variability is a very real concept. They are essentially the arbiters of the lowest common denominator of medical thinking.
Yet, because their messages are easily understandable, their outcomes measures easy to track, and their general message one of ‘doing less’ (thus raising the potential of decreased costs), they have been the darlings of politicians looking for ways to legislatively control health care costs. The equivalent in computer technology might be a group of people advocating for a finite processor chip architecture, and actually suppressing innovation by legislating compliance with ‘acceptable’ predetermined design criteria.
Fair question PGR88. The ultimate solution would be open market competition with reimbursement being cash only. Then, and only then would the cost curve be broken and the crushing regulation from the Feds(Medicare) be removed that actually prevents advances in cost saving technology. However, hell if I know how we get there.
Agreed. And if the speed doesn't kill 'em, the stretch to the bars will.
I have exactly the same thought.
Given the massive interests and bureaucracy in the present state-controlled system, change will be impossible. The only option is to somehow write tax law and regulation to encourage a second, free-market, direct-doctor-and-patient system to grow up around the existing one.
For example, I see a kidney doctor-urologist for a specific condition. We are just monitoring this problem now, although fixes may involve some future fairly standard surgery. Just out of curiosity, I asked their group A/P manager if I could pay cash. She had no idea what I was talking about. They referred me to the group's outside billing company. After going through many levels, I finally spoke to someone who understood the import of what I was asking. The final answer from the outside biller, 1) no one handles cash or direct payments in this system and 2) we would be out of business if they did.
Ludwig Von Mises, founder of the Austrian School of Economics, started saying in the 1920's that prices were at the heart of everything, and that socialism would fail, not simply because of tyranny or corruption or "tragedy of the commons." It would fail simply because without real prices, even genius planners could not know what was needed and how to allocate resources. That is where we are now - real prices for health-care do not exist. Prices are, for the most part, what the government will pay, and corrupt deals with insider insurance companies.
This inefficiency and corruption (i.e. price increases) are covered by massive government debt and squeezing of insurance buyers with rates and deductibles, as a kind of massive, hidden tax.
This is the result of ObamaCare qusai-nationalizing the health care system and the insurance system by which we consumers pay for our treatment.
By the way, have any of we little folks feel there has been an improvement when we last saw a dr.or paid our bill for health insurance?
Interesting news, but I think this has more to do with automation in manufacturing and the growth of e-commerce in retailing than anything else.
Last year my husband needed a hernia repaired. We are uninsured, self-employed people.
Started calling the area hospitals and surgery centers asking the cash only question. Two months of the most aggravating obtuseness I have ever endured.
Then I clicked on this website; https://www.newchoicehealth.com/About
In just a few days and a couple of emails they located a very nice surgery center in a Seattle suburb that would provide the necessary surgery for a single up-front cash price that was less than half ($3500) of all the not guaranteed price quotes (when I could get one) from local providers.
It was a great medical experience. The most difficult part was making my husband let me do the lifting and toting post op on our little medical vacation to the big city.
ahhh the abomination of birth control.
I am glad you eventually found a solution. I have a Medicare HMO that works great until you get sick.
Very interesting - and great idea
I always thought great success could be had offering an “Uber” for medical services.
This is especially true for non-crisis procedures like hernia repair or torn meniscus or preventative care like colonoscopy, etc.
One interesting thing was that it was completely paperless. All the arrangements were made online except for a presurgical interview done by phone. Even at the surgery center, it was all electronic records on tablets. No paper, no filing cabinets and no insurance billing staff.
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