Our Future in Health Care Reform

Our Future in Health Care Reform

Health care reform is not a party issue. Eventually a law will be in place to reform the health care system. In my family, there have been reoccurring intense lively family discussions after our traditional weekly Sunday family dinner. Represented at the table you have a lawyer, doctors, educators, entrepreneurs, community activists, the chef, two stay at home moms, information technologist, union organizer, faith leaders, legislators, banking executive, and tailor. Political divisions are republican, democrats, independents, and one representing the green party. How much will it cost? How will we pay? Who will be entering the system? Will the quality of service suffer? How are we going to get more doctors, nurses, administrators, and auxiliary staff? No matter how the discussion starts it always leads to different questions of implementation. Implementation of health care reform is understood by many to be a costly investment in the future of a healthier United States. The health care system will be impacted as historically underserved and excluded populations enter the health care system. Current and forecasts of future shortages are creating strategies to address the development of the needed workforce to for health care reform. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated in 2007 there were 45.7 million people in America without health insurance in the Publication Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007. However the calculation of numbers of uninsured on page 67 states “estimate of the number of people without health insurance more closely approximates the number of people who are uninsured at a specific point in time during the year than the number of people uninsured for the entire year.” To my understanding 45.7 million is the lowest possible number of people entering the health care system. I wonder if the number would increase if you add to the uninsured people only covered by health insurance less than three months out of the year, and the people that are underinsured. Michal Cohen Moskowitz “State Action and the Health Workforce” estimates the nation would have to produce six million new members to enter the health workforce by 2014. As more people enter the system the demand for services will increase the health care industry will grow. The growth in the health care industry would have to address the current shortages and set in place strategies to address the workforce to cover all of America. Michal Cohen Moskowitz reviews different recruitment actions that eight states have taken to resolve shortages and prepare for the increase of health care professionals in the “State Action and the Health Workforce” published in 2007 by the Association of Academic Health Centers. Georgia, New York, and Texas have websites aim to recruit high school students to enter into health care fields. On page 10, examples of pipeline initiatives of recruitment for elementary through high school students include health career fairs, science meets, summer camps, mentorships, assistance in applications, opportunity for high school students to receive college credit for coursework, and the inclusion of guidance counselors and teachers with resources to develop interest in jobs for the health profession. Scholarships and loan repayment programs are incentives for primary health care professionals to serve in underserved areas. Of course you have include the faculty to train the future health care professionals, the incentives of the recruitment of faculty include scholarship and loan repayments, addressing the pay disparities between practice and teaching, and the increase of education capacity by building more medical schools. The will be many types of jobs generated with the health care reformation. Understanding how many people are uninsured and underinsured entering the health care system is essential to the overhaul of our health care system. States have set in place initiatives that will improve our health care system through recruitment efforts. The investment in health care reform will improve the quality of life of many people and generate jobs.