Obama's Next Hiring Move: $1B Health-Care Jobs Plan

Plan to push innovation, reducing costs, as Congress deadlocked
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 14, 2011 4:04 AM CST
Updated Nov 14, 2011 7:56 AM CST
Obama Announcing $1B Health Care Jobs Plan
President Obama speaks from the Rose Garden during an event with medical doctors at the White House.   (Getty Images)

With a deadlocked Congress still unable to launch any sort of jobs plan, the White House will announce today a $1 billion project for training and hiring health care workers, the latest in President Obama's "We Can't Wait" campaign, reports the Washington Post. The health care jobs plan will feature grants for doctors, health care organizations, and local governments, concentrating on programs that expand health care-related employment while reducing costs, and ones that can be implemented within six months.

“We’re seeking innovators, organizations, and leaders that have an idea to bring into further testing," said one administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Health care has been one of the few bright spots in the US economy recently, adding 300,000 jobs over the past year, and on track to add 3.2 million more by 2018. Medical associations are predicting a coming shortage of doctors, with 63,000 too few in 2015 and a 130,000 shortage by 2025 if current trends hold. “We’re saying let’s find the best people to do these jobs and broaden the workforce," said the head of a medical innovation group. (More We Can't Wait campaign stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X