Health Spending Causes Disinvestment in Our Kids

In "The 2008-09 Career Guide to Industries", the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, makes several significant points: in 2006, health care was the largest U.S. industry; and in 2006 it provided "13.6 million jobs for wage and salary workers and about 438,000 jobs for the self-employed". During the decade ending 2016, health care is predicted to add 21.7% more jobs (3 million new wage and salary jobs) than any other industry(www.bls.gov/oco/cg/print/cgs035.htm). In our recessionary economy, health care has become the engine for employment growth among both highly and lesser educated individuals, income generation (average earnings for nonsupervisory health care industry employees are more than average), and economic stability.

The Guide identifies nine segments of the health care industry: hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities, physicians' offices, dentists' offices, home health services, offices of other health practitioners,m outpatient care centers, other ambulatory health care services and medical and diagnostic laboratories.

About 30% of hospital workers are registered nurses though "Hospitals also employ large numbers of office and administrative support workers". Approximately 65% of the jobs in nursing and residential care facilities are in service occupations (nursing, psychiatric and home health aides). Physicians' offices employ 40% of their work staff ij office and administrative support occupations such as receptionists and information clerks.

A table in the Guide shows that management, business and financial occupations employ 4.2% of the health care work force, service occupations employ 31.8% and office and administrative support occupations account for about 18%.

In my opinion, America's older citizens are the group most likely to benefit from surging health care employment and resources. In an article in Scientific American a number of years ago, Bok wrote about America's increasing investment in the elderly and its disinvestment in its children. Wouldn't it be better to provide a health care system which provides efficient appropriate diagnosis, treatment plans, and quality of care for all Americans and focus the predicted 21.7% employment and resource "surge" on improvement of schools and services for our children? After all, those children will grow up to be the young adults who pay for the elder generations' health care.