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New Report: Medicare for All Would Create Jobs While Freeing Up Workers

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The Economic Policy Institute just released a report: “Fundamental health reform like ‘Medicare for All’ would help the labor market.”

JOSH BIVENS, via Kayla Blado or Nick Kauzlarich, news at epi.org, @EconomicPolicy
EPI Research Director Bivens said today: “A fundamental health reform like Medicare for All would be an unambiguously good policy for the labor market, for the economy overall, and for U.S. workers. Besides the obvious benefits of expanding health care to millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans, Medicare for All could raise wages, boost productivity, and help small business owners.”

The group notes: “Opponents of a single-payer health care system have quoted an analysis of the economic effects of Medicare for All that includes the projection that up to 1.8 million jobs in the health insurance and billing administration sector could be eliminated if the policy were implemented. Bivens notes that this number has been stripped of all context that is included in the original study, and is often misleadingly presented as the predicted net employment effect of Medicare for All. But while Medicare for All would indeed lead to lower demand for labor in the health insurance and billing administration sector, it would boost demand for other types of jobs overall. For example, expanded access to health care could increase demand for health services by up to $300 billion annually, which would translate into an increased demand for 2.3 million full-time health care workers.”

In addition, the report finds that Medicare for All would:

* “Lessen the income loss, stress, and economic shock of unemployment and job transitions by eliminating the loss of health care that accompanies job-loss.

* “Support self-employment and small business development — which is low in the United States relative to other rich Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries — by eliminating the daunting cost of health care from startup costs.

* “Inject new dynamism into the overall economy by reducing ‘job lock,’ by allowing workers to go where their skills and preferences lie, not just to workplaces with affordable health plans.