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Vault Industry Experts Weigh in on the Effect of the Health

Published: Mar 29, 2010

 Education       Grad School       

Last week, Vault industry experts weighed in on the effect of the new health care reform bill on the job market and individual careers. Here's a little bit of what was said. I chose the parts most relevant to Admit One readers (in this case, recent or soon-to-be college graduates and MBAs).

Carolyn: The new health care reform bill is good news for current college students too. Most colleges offer health care plans for current students while they're on campus, which include treatment in the campus infirmary if you've caught pink eye or strep throat, as well as physical health and well-being doctors and counselors. But once they graduate (and, sometimes, during the summer), many young adults find themselves uninsured due to unemployment or under-employment. Many internship programs, for example, do not offer health benefits under the employer's plan; and entry-level salaries are sometimes so low that opting into an employer's health care plan means significantly lowering one's quality of life. I myself was an intern after graduation and found myself (briefly) uninsured.

Everyone talks about how the new health care reform bill will give U.S. citizens the "flexibility of choice," and for students and recent grads that couldn't be more true. Under the new health care reform bill, recent graduates will be eligible to remain a "dependent" under their parents' insurance plan until they're 26. This extended coverage will take some of the stress off of finding one's bearing in the professional sphere, and allow recent grads to take jobs that offer more long-term benefits (e.g., job opportunities, networking, etc.), rather than ones that pay best and offer the most comprehensive benefits plan but may not be on the desired career path.

AP Image Signing of the Health Care Bill 2010This increased job flexibility at graduation will also enable students to consider more diverse options when they leave campus--travelling, perhaps, or simply taking time for themselves to help transition from student to professional. Postgraduate internships will also certainly continue their upward trajectory. Last year, 55 percent of career centers at colleges and universities across the country told Vault that they've seen an increase in the number of seniors choosing internships over full-time employment after graduation. With the safety net of continued health care coverage, these grads will be able to pursue the internships and opportunities best suited to launch their careers.

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Derek: I think the largest effect on the financial industry, from a careers perspective, will be an indirect one. With most of the difficult work involved in reforming the U.S. health care system behind them, Democrats can now focus on financial regulatory reform, which slid to the back burner but is now shaping up to be the major rallying point come mid-term elections this fall. Coincidentally, Election Day occurs during the height of top banking employers' recruiting season. This means that some of these employers (those who've been and will continue to receive boatloads of hate mail and bad press) will likely be spending serious amounts of time, energy and money attempting to dispel rumors and artificially sweeten the not-so-sweet past when they descend upon undergraduate and MBA institutions after Labor Day.

And while banks' PR outfits and insiders work overtime, would-be finance employees from some of the top schools across the country (a/k/a candidates for some of the highest-paying entry-level jobs in the land) will be faced with some difficult questions, including this one: Should I go into banking at all? With public perception of the banking industry at a low, if not all-time low, and the heat about to be turned up on banks for their recent indiscretions, it's likely that this year choices between, say, Goldman and McKinsey, Morgan Stanley and BCG, and J.P. Morgan and Bain might be easier and come out differently than they had been in the past.

Read the full roundtable discussion about the health care bill and careers on Vault's Careers Blog.

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