Chris Jacobs: Coronavirus job cuts — Biden health care policies could make these losses permanent
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that during April, the American economy lost 20.5 million jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, health care policies proposed by former Vice President Joe Biden could mean some of those lost jobs never return.
While health care represents one industry long thought of as “recession-proof,” the coronavirus pandemic has proven an exception. In April, the industry lost over 1.4 million jobs, with those losses spread throughout the sector. Dentist offices lost over 503,000 jobs, and physician offices an additional 243,000. Nursing homes lost a total of 113,000 jobs during the month.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Most of the job losses came because doctors, dentists and other medical providers canceled non-emergency procedures, both to prevent the spread of the virus and conserve personal protective equipment. Despite an influx of coronavirus patients, hospitals lost 135,000 jobs in April — because the cancellation of elective surgeries took away their prime source of revenue.
TOM HOMAN: BIDEN IMMIGRATION FLIP-FLOPS – LET'S SEPARATE FACTS FROM HIS CAMPAIGN FICTIONS
While some states have allowed elective procedures to resume, hospitals could now face another financial problem: Many individuals may lose their employer-sponsored health plans, which generally pay hospitals much more than government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}More from Opinion
As a researcher for the Rand Corporation noted, “Even if [patients] do go back to the hospital, they’ll be paying a lot lower rate than when they had insurance through their employer.” Hospitals could continue to face financial losses from these lower-paying patients, and suffer job losses as a result.
Policies proposed by Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, would worsen these financial losses and job losses within the health care sector. His health care platform calls for creating a government-run health plan to “reduce costs for patients by negotiating lower prices from hospitals and other health care providers.” Translation: Biden will force hospitals and doctors to accept lower pay for their services.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Likewise, the “Medicare at 60” proposal Biden endorsed last month would expand access to that government program, which pays doctors and hospitals less than most private insurance. The government-run plan and “Medicare at 60” proposals would together reduce revenues throughout the health care sector, working to make the temporary furloughs of the past few months permanent.
Those job losses could accelerate under Democrats’ march toward government-run health care. The 1.4 million health care jobs lost during April sounds like a large number — and it is. But an analysis last year in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association found that a single-payer health care plan similar to that proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., could lead to an estimated 1.5 million jobs lost in hospitals alone — more than 11 times the 135,000 jobs the hospital sector lost during April.
During the Democratic presidential primaries, Biden claimed he did not support single-payer health care. But he endorsed the “Medicare at 60” proposal the day after Sanders dropped out of the nominating contest, in an attempt to win over the socialist’s followers. Further moves by Biden and his fellow Democrats to placate the radical Left will accelerate the march toward a fully-socialized health care system — and the job losses that will result.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The expansion of government-run health care will have numerous negative outcomes for patients. Paying doctors and hospitals less could force them to cut corners in ways that harm patient care. But government dictating lower payment levels will also result in additional job losses throughout the health care sector, and make some of the temporary job losses permanent.
At a time when our nation already faces a major battle to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, that outcome represents a policy prescription our nation can ill afford.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}