The reality of a rising unemployment rate in America means that many American workers are constantly in danger of losing their medical and dental benefits while many others are already living with the reality of lost or changing benefits.

For health care workers, where unemployment is among the lowest in all fields of work, there are implications when health care benefits are lost en masse.

This applies especially to cities like Detroit where large amounts of automotive workers are transitioning from familiar health coverage and familiar providers, often the same physicians and dentists for most of their working lives, to new and unfamiliar Cobra plans. The United Auto Workers, for instance, is planning to eliminate certain retiree health care benefits.

As the pink slips continue looming, many American workers are attempting to “squeeze in” the most health care, dental and vision services as possible while they still have their familiar health care plans. With appointment books rapidly filling up in hospitals, vision care offices, doctor’s offices and dentist offices everywhere, the crunch is on for health care workers who provide care in those settings.  Dental assistants, physician assistants and other health care workers are doing their best to keep up with the demand.

These newly laid off workers will usually have access to new health care plans through Cobra plans, pensions, government programs and such. But many will unfortunately find themselves counted among the millions of uninsured Americans. The government is working toward one of several variations of a solution for this.

Any type of “universal” plan, providing coverage to a much greater amount of people who are currently insured, will result in an even higher demand for health care workers. Combine that with the aging baby boomer population and the currently retiring workforce of health care workers, and the demand for health care workers is destined to be greater than ever in the near future.