That’s an odd question, isn’t it? At first glance it appears to be totally random, but if you stop to think about it, there’s more to it than meets the eye. If you took a wild guess and came up with ‘cost,’ you’d be exactly right. Both real estate and healthcare are seeing rising costs associated with them, making both beyond the means of the average worker in the United States.
Believe it or not, this is true even with the Affordable Care Act and FHA Guaranteed Loans, neither of which is really ‘cheap.’ So what do they have in common? Several things really and if you hold an MSHA degree and are working in healthcare administration, it might do you well to understand just how similar the two are in terms of market conditions.
Supply and Demand
The first thing that healthcare and real estate have in common is a lack of supply but a huge demand. Both affordable healthcare and real estate are in short supply, but there are people lined up in need of homes and medical providers. Anyone checking the price of real estate this year would be surprised at just how quickly prices have risen, and with many Obamacare providers dropping out, it’s the same situation, as the remaining providers have raised premiums and deductibles.
Cost Is a Huge Issue in Common
Yes, Obamacare as it has come to be known is anything but affordable. Insurance premiums are going up through the roof, as are those already unaffordable deductibles that in many cases are greater than $5,000 a year. Now, people still have to pay out of pocket for most services throughout the year in addition to paying for insurance they are unable to use! As for houses, just check your local listings and see how the value of real estate has skyrocketed over the past year. Market analysts are now saying that prices are comparable to the peak just prior to the real estate bubble bursting back in ’08, and that is pretty high indeed.
Solutions?
If you hold a masters in healthcare management, one thing you could do is work to lobby Washington to do something about ‘affordable’ care that is anything but. With an incoming president who’s vowed to repeal or totally revamp Obamacare, your job could be easier in this regard. However, those changes are a long way down the road so in the interim it is up to you to help patients in your facility get the care they need and help them work through payments in some way.
As for realtors, there isn’t a lot you can do when market prices keep going up, but what you can do is help your clients find financing that makes sense. Just as health insurance rates have risen through the roof, so too have many lenders’ rates and fees. It’s all about costs being above what the average blue collar worker can afford and until inflation can be held in check, the only thing you can do is work through finances with each individual consumer. Sadly, healthcare and real estate are both unaffordable to the majority of people.
About Mike Wheatley
