With single payer, what will happen to the employees of insurance companies?

[eridani]

The CEOs, to be sure, will have to get real jobs. There are quite a few options for ordinary employees.

If the financing of health care is a public good, then public oversight can insure that the claims processing jobs that remain will never be sent out of the country. This is true whether we hire existing insurance companies to do this work or build a separate institutional structure from scratch.

Once the burden of being robbed by expensive middlemen is removed from private and public employers, they will be able to afford to hire many more employees. The CA Nurses Study estimates that single payer could provide 2.6 million new jobs this way.

There is a growing shortage of nurses, and we should be funding more training in this field.

Private insurance will not disappear. All countries with universal health care have regulated private insurers who provide plans to fund extras not provided by the basic system.

With health care not tied to a job, people will be free to start their own businesses, or to retire early and take on second careers or community work. This will free up spaces on their former employer’s career ladder.

[LaurenG]

1. Someone will still have to process claims

there will still be plenty to do. I'm not sure there will be work for all the people employed by insurance companies though, especially the $6,000,000 or more a year CEO's who btw are mostly all MD's.

[izquierdista]

16. But a lot less

It takes fewer people to pay a claim once than it does to argue about it for months before paying a fraction of it.

[eridani]

21. A no outsrourcing policy might actually increase jobs in the US

--especially considering that private insurance can still be in the bells and whistles business.

[Cleita]

2. PNHP estimates that most of them will be re-employed in the new system.

The executives probably will have to go find new jobs. Conyer's plan HR676 has a provision for retraining those who don't get jobs in the new system.

[and-justice-for-all]

3. Some insurance companies will fold..

others will merge, but private providers will still exist.

[Psychic Consortium]

4. Karma time for those who prevented sick people from getting medical treatment.

And who have made life a living hell for patients
and providers.

[quidam56]

12. Health Care in America wreaks of fraud.

clearly in East Tennessee and southwest Virginia, PROFIT CARE is much more important than PATIENT CARE. People are dying but as long as the politicians and the profit machines are raking it in, we don't matter. Some people are filing for bankruptcy, my family had to file a death certificate and it's deemed, defended and supported as quality health care. http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62 I support HR 676, put single payer at the table.

[Psychic Consortium]

13. Insurance companies are scams..... time for them to go bye bye. nt

[endarkenment]

5. The CEOs will not have to get real jobs.

CEOs never have to get real jobs.

There will of course be some people who lose their jobs. People lose their jobs every day, economic churn is a fact of life. If we had a better social safety net, such dislocations would not be as painful as they are. On the other hand if people in the for-profit private health insurance industry ripoff are losing their jobs because we have shifted to a non-profit public single payer system that needs far fewer people employed to process claims, those people will not have to worry about losing their health care coverage.

[billyoc]

6. Same thing that happens to mercenaries when peace breaks out.

[annabanana]

7. The exact same thing as happens to the laid-off auto workers,

the laid-off teachers, the laid-off buggy whip manufacturers.

on edit: At least they will not lose health care.

[yy4me]

8. That very same thing that happened to me and millions of

others. Many will be laid off, companies move or close. Some will be absorbed into a new system. The rest will have to fight the day to day boredom and frustration of looking for a job when there aren't any to be found.

[spooked911]

9. good points, but you can see why the privates insurers are scared to death of the public option

it will totally restructure, if not destroy, their whole business. We need to figure out how to allay these fears-- because these people WILL kill the public option if we don't act effectively.

[izquierdista]

17. Cultural Revolution

Why not send them out to work as peasants like Mao did during the Cultural Revolution? They have the necessary training. Instead of sitting in a cubicle ladling shit out to people who want their claim paid, they can ladle night soil on rows of turnips and potatoes. Get them out of the stuffy office and into the fresh air.

[spooked911]

22. are you serious?

I'm not sure that argument will sway those in Congress.

[eridani]

20. The point is that all the worker bees are likely to get usefully re-employed n/t

[rurallib]

10. I'd guess the one group that would get hit hardest would be the insurance

person in each doctor's office. There should be little need for them in the future.

[Blue Meany]

11. My take is that right now health insurance is dragging down

the American economy, making it difficult for companies to compete internationally (that's why some have moved their operations to Canada). Naturally, a single-payer system will reduce the size of the insurance industry, but the savings will act as an economic stimulus throughout the economy and should result in new jobs in industries that actually produce usable products. The transition, however, will be difficult and should be gradual, so as to reduce the trauma to employees. As for CEOs, they can be sent into exile, as far as I am concerned.

[tularetom]

14. With single payer, ex insurance employees will be covered as well

Well, won't they?

[kjackson227]

15. There will be no "single-payer", but there will be "public option", which...

will offer competition to these insurance companies. They'll either have to conform cost-wise, or suffer the consequences. Competition is a win-win for everyone. Employees will be okay for awhile, at least.

[Iggo]

18. We can't stop cutting down the forests...

...'cause then all the loggers will lose their jobs.

We can't decriminalize recreational drugs, 'cause then the prison guards will lose their jobs.

We can't end The War Without End, 'cause then the arms-makers will lose their jobs.

Hey, this is fun!

EDIT: Wait. I missed the point. Still...

[kentuck]

19. They will be covered also.