If you are in the process of deciding what career to pursue or you are considering a change of careers, then take a long look at a job in a healthcare field. According to TheJobNetwork.com, there will be an average job growth rate of 19 percent for almost all healthcare related fields by 2024. While many people think that technology is the field that will be doing the most hiring, the truth is that healthcare is where the jobs will be.

There are several reasons why healthcare is becoming a demand field for workers, but some of those reasons are unique to the new Affordable Care Act. The fact that more people than ever now have access to healthcare has completely changed the industry, and that means a significant boost for people who are looking for a financially and emotionally rewarding career.

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Baby Boomers Are On The Clock

One of the reasons healthcare is becoming a demand field is because the Baby Boomer generation is getting past the age of 65, and they will need ongoing healthcare for many years to come. When you consider that the average American male is projected to live to the age of 80 and the average American female is projected to live to the age of 86, it becomes apparent that there is going to be a spike in healthcare hiring for many years to come.

Access To Healthcare Is Making A Difference

When President Obama was promoting his Affordable Care Act, he said that it would help millions of people get access to healthcare that did not have healthcare coverage in the past. After a few years of the ACA being in full effect, it turns out that the president was right and the current healthcare system is having a hard time keeping up with the demand.

One of the most basic effects of the ACA is that it simply created more healthcare jobs because more people had insurance. Those millions of people who had never had insurance before suddenly needed doctors, hospitals and long-term care professionals available to them. A big part of the increase in healthcare hiring over the next few years has to do with the healthcare industry catching up to the demand that the ACA has created.

New Positions Created By The ACA

While traditional healthcare positions are in demand, the ACA has created some new healthcare jobs that need to be filled immediately. According to HealthAffairs.org, one way that healthcare organizations are meeting the increase in demand is to create Ambulatory Intensive Care Units (A-ICU) to help treat patients in the field rather than bringing them back to the hospital. Within these new A-ICUs is the need for doctors with field experience, and nurses that can operate under adverse conditions.

The ACA has made healthcare accessible to people in rural areas, but the law did not provide for building new hospitals and healthcare facilities to treat people in rural areas. The result has been the creation of home care organizations that require much more medically qualified personnel than in the past.

Another ACA creation is a position referred to as a healthcare coach. Once again, this is a position driven by the increase in demand, and it is mostly geared towards long-term and chronic cases. A healthcare coach offers encouragement to the patient and acts as a liaison for the patient with the hospital, insurance company and healthcare providers. The coach also attempts to assist in areas such as financial hardships, housing issues and transportation needs.

One of the interesting aspects of the healthcare coach position is that it does not require a medical degree of any type. This is the kind of position that will develop and change as time goes by, and could become its own field of study that creates its own degree program. All of this is because of the way that the ACA has completely changed healthcare in this country.

The Fastest Growing Positions In Healthcare

The fastest growing positions in healthcare between now and 2022 are projected to be:

• Audiologist (34 percent growth)

• Dental Hygienist (33 percent growth)

• Dietician (21 percent growth)

• Physical Therapist (36 percent growth)

The increase in the number of people having access to healthcare means that there will be a spike in the amount of records that have to be kept. Because of this, employment experts are projecting that just about every medical records and billing job in the healthcare field will grow by a factor of anywhere from 20 to 30 percent. Because of the new requirements of the ACA, there could be a significant number of new positions created in the medical billing field as well.

In the coming years, there will be several fields that will see significant growth in the number of job opportunities they will be able to offer. But few of those fields will see the kind of growth that will come from the healthcare field. With more people living longer, the natural need is to populate the healthcare support industries with qualified people as quickly as possible. But the Affordable Care Act also plays a part in this as now more people than ever have health insurance, and many of them are using it.

There are new careers being created in the healthcare field that do not require a medical degree. That means that you can help others without having to be a brilliant surgeon or top-notch expert in your field. The growth in healthcare jobs is going to be steady for at least the next decade, and the number of new positions that will be opening up will grow as well. From medical billing jobs to specialized medical experts, the healthcare field is seeing a tremendous surge in opportunity, and that opportunity is open to anyone who wants to take advantage of it.

George N Root III is a professional freelance writer who has expertise in topics such as Internet marketing, business, advertising, and personal finance.