What Health Care Reform Means to the Middle Class (Hint: Jobs)

President Obama, at his Wednesday press conference, talked about the job-loss impact of rising health care costs on the middle class. But why the middle class? This recession has hit construction workers, young people, other demographics. It's because the middle class -- and by extension, the overall economy that relies on the middle class (in this case, the middle aged middle class) -- may not be able to recover in the job market without health care reform.

You do the math. You reach thirty, you pay more than when you're in your twenties. You reach forty, still more. You reach fifty and, if you don't get a heart attack from a preexisting condition, you may just get one from the exponential increase in your premiums.

Health care providers argue that as people age they require more health care for which they have to pay. That may very well be true, but in the world of unintended consequences, it also means those fifty-somethings may be paying in other ways -- include forgoing their ability to pay those higher premiums.

What is a potential employer that has to choose between a fifty-something who comes with higher costs for health care, despite being a far better qualified candidate, and a twenty or thirty something less experienced applicant who will cost them far less over time in premiums to do?

The president talked about the "donut hole" that exists for Medicare patients; the requirement to cover all the costs after a certain limit was reached until a far higher limit came into play. This has been a nightmare for many seniors on fixed incomes.

The middle aged may very well have a "donut hole" between their fifties and age sixty-five Medicare eligibility due to the lessening of employment opportunities that come from inflated premiums for their demographic.

But this is important for all demographics. When those in their fifties are passed over for jobs or are let go to save on health care premiums, a vital segment of our economy becomes depressed (and not just emotionally) as America requires a strong middle class that is not passed over for jobs.

Those who argue we should wait to implement reform are arguing to kill it. The will to put through health care reform legislation will not exist in the environment of the 2010 elections. If anyone tries to argue that, ask them their age, whether their health care is secure (i.e. Congress) and if they'd like to be pounding the pavement for jobs when human resources departments are looking at the costs associated with hiring them compared to someone younger.

The employment situation in this country will not improve until there is health care reform leading to increased numbers of the employed and quality of employee, as both are needed for our economy to recover.

More on this topic at THE ENVIRONMENTALIST

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Comments

[hsr0601]

Poll Still Finds Public Support for Health-Care Reform: While a majority of Americans still think health-care reform is needed now, some of that support has wavered slightly as Congress wrestles with the details of producing a reform package, according to the July Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. Fifty-six percent of Americans continue to believe that health reform is more important than ever, despite the country's economic problems. And by a better than two-to-one margin (51 percent to 23 percent), Americans think the country would be better off if Congress and President Barack Obama enacted health reform, the poll found
Aside from the savings created by the prevention and wellness program, medical IT, foreseeable potential stem cell effect, mental stress relief and massive job creation, ending subsidies for the private insurers and payment reform and so on could be enough to meet the goal of deficit-neutral.
Public school, public insurance policy, and public clean energy act are the natural parts of life in the free nations.

Thank You !

[themidnightreview]

The potential long term savings of health care reform is far greater then to just simply ignore the situation, hoping for it to resurface at a later point in time. Conservative politics have created a culture of refusal, simply taking the converse of any Democratic position by virtue.

What the Republicans are really doing is performing a refusal much like in horse riding, where a horse does not jump a fence he is presented, resulting in a penalty, and in some instances rider injury. The conservative refusal of presented options will result in the injury of the American public, and instead of presenting an alternative, they seem content with the status quo.

Simply put, a healthy society offers better workers. Not only would health care increase productivity and quality of life for all citizens, but the potential to reduce costs and increase economic activity is great. With 15% of Americans completely uninsured, the burden of medical costs can be tremendous, causing bankruptcy, which in turn negatively effects credit, which greatly reduces the spending power of the uninsured. With local governments and hospitals eating the cost of such unpaid bills, local government, industry, and people suffer.

Insuring those 45 million people not only prevents the loss of income and profit from the health industry and government, but it stands to reduce costs to those who are capable of paying, as well as adding millions of potential consumers, who were previously unable to pay.

[hsr0601]

Let me be clear the current world-wide recession most likely resulted from the concentration of capital toward a few, thereby revived middle class and consumer confidence would be a key to vibrant economy activity and employment as the money does not evaporate.

Basically, If ruling party changes, accordingly so does tax system , especially given the condition that the middle class is undergoing severe financial hardship as a consequence of the extremely high fuel price, mortgage rate, and insurance premium, which is a beauty and virtue of democracy as we know.

In case some people have enjoyed the benefit of exemptions, that might imply others have shouldered the equivalent of their share.
Now the time has come for the middle class and middle class-oriented party to take initiative.
In general, advanced states are characterized as a broad base of middle class, the recovery of which is what the last presidential election is about as the California budget crisis demonstrates the severity in collapse of middle class and tax decrease.
Alongside a tax on the richest, alcohol tax and ending subsidies for the private insurers can be considered to mitigate the amount and resistance, I guess.
How can anybody expect vibrant economic activity / JOB CREATION ( faulted by the non-alternative naysayers to distract a series of scandals ) and housing boom in the context one in two Americans say someone in their family skipped pills, postponed or cut back on needed medical care due to the cost ?

[BobLablah]

You seem to be saying that health care reform will create more jobs for older workers but those are just jobs that would have gone to younger workers.