Trimming costs means trimming jobs in healthcare

Healthcare costs have continued to rise above the rate of inflation as more jobs were created in the industry, but as California Healthline reports, trying to cut the former will lead to fewer of the latter.

“The goal of increasing jobs in healthcare is incompatible with the goal of keeping healthcare affordable,” said Harvard University economist Katherine Baicker. “There’s a lot of evidence we can get more bang for our buck in healthcare. We should be aiming for a healthcare system that operates more efficiently and effectively. That might mean better outcomes for patients and fewer jobs.”

Healthcare has accounted for 35 percent of all job growth in the U.S. since 2007, with hiring remaining strong through the Great Recession and then getting a boost as the Affordable Care Act expanded insurance coverage.

That’s not a positive development in the eyes of some economists, as more jobs are far removed from the goal of better patient care. For example, membership in the American Academy of Professional Coders has increased by 10,000 just in the past year for a position that can be described as deciphering “decipher arcane rules to mine money from human ills.”

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