Yeah right... doctors will throw away their years of medical school, internship, residency and practices to do what... become bartenders, insurance salesmen, realtors and truck drivers? :142smilie
Guys, it is not just doctors and nurses that lose jobs from this health care bill..... and frankly those folks won't be leaving until 2014 anyway.
There are a number of companies that are closing up shop due to the "reforms" - a number of which have already announced it and explained that they can't survive with the health care bill as is.
Other companies are slashing large portions of their payroll, in an effort to meet the MLR. A company I know somebody from just told me they laid off 130 people - all managers/VP's making between $90K and $200K - nobody that is rich (by Obama's definition), but a lot of people with familiies that work hard. You'll see more and more of this.
There are a lot of small insurance companies out there, in small locales, that will not be able to compete with this new reform in place - leaving consumers with 1 or 2 choices per state - likely BCBS and UnitedHealthcare. Couple that will these companies only being able to sell Policies that Obama approves (read rich benefits and very expensive), and there will be very little choice for consumers out there - unlike pre-reform, where in most areas there were hundreds of products people could choose from.
Of course, many of the insurance agents will also go belly up, as companies will no longer by able to pay commissions to agents, due to the MLR.
So, yes, there will be a lot of employment lost due to this bill.
Think of it this way - name me another private industry where the government mandates what the companies can pay for salaries and profit? How many of them have to pay their profit back if the government feels they make too much? I've never seen Microsoft have to do that..... The ONLY time this has happenned in our country's history (that I can think of) is with our utilities - like water and electric - since this it an actual monopoly.
But healthcare (as of now) has many players and products, and compete currently on price and quality. The future it won't be that way - you'll have one choice and you'll have to take it (can't even refuse it, even if you hate it).
Frankly, I find it abhorent that the Feds are mandating specific profit levels (4%) and expense levels (16%). And that's not the worse thing - if companies were guaranteed a 4% return, they'd live with it. But they are not. If the loss ratio is 79%, they make 4%, and return 1% to the customer. If it is 85%, they lose money and can't recoup the money from customers. It's now a business with a limited upside (4%) and an unlimited downside (claims could go very high in a given year). And predictitng future claims in the health business is not an easy task - not like life insurance. In health, you not only have to account for the incidence of claims (how many there are), but also what the amounts are going to be (which is highly variable). Life insurance is so easy in comparision - you can only have 1 claim (death) and only 1 amount to pay (the face amount of the policy).
How many of you would invest in the stock market, knowing that the most you would be allowed to make is 4% in a given year, but you could lose an unlimited amount on the downside? Not too many of you, I'd bet.
This is a slippery slope - if the government can control how much private insurance companies can make, why not apply this to other industries, for the sake of the consumer? Auto's would be a great place to start - let's cut salaries, worker's health benefits, and limit profits. How much cheaper would cars be then? Damn the auto worker's if, through government mandates a lower price? The food/clothing industries are other examples - look at how much money the GAP wastes on advertising - if they didn't, prices would be much lower, and the consumer would benefit.
It's hard to argue that government control of profitability is ok for some industries, and not for others. Very slippery slope indeed.
