Last week the new health care bill – aka – “The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act,” has given birth to its first set of regulations. Although controversial, there is some cause for HR professionals to celebrate.
First of all, the new bill requires that everyone MUST purchase health insurance. People must get coverage from their employer (if they can) or the government will gladly assist.
How does this relate to HR professionals? Chances are, you already work at a company offering medical insurance. If you’re a recruiter, you may want to focus on recruiting for the health care industry. With more people having medical insurance, there will be an increase in the number of doctor visits and, thus, a need for more health care support services (and need for HR generalists, benefits administrators, etc).
Another cause for celebration? As the HR rep for your employer, you can be the good messenger for a change. When you communicate the new provisions, such as telling employees that their insurance will not be canceled if they get sick, or they can’t be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition. And, then there is the expanded coverage for adult children who are still hanging their hat at home. How many parents thought (maybe hoped?) to be an empty nester and are now finding their adult children needing health care coverage? Well, now you can cover them on your policy until the age of 26.
Change is here. This sure beats having to once again repeat a familiar HR saying in this economy … “Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger”! For a summary of the bill click here.
