Study: Job losses may result from cuts to hospital care (635 hits)
Healthcare Traveler Newsletter Staff
Source: Healthcare Traveler Mobile News
Medicare cuts to hospital care could lead to a loss of nearly 278,000 jobs, according to a study by Tripp Umbach, a firm specializing in conducting economic impact studies. The job losses are tied to cuts in hospital care included in H.R. 3630 (legislation extending the Social Security tax holiday, unemployment insurance and the physician fix), passed by the House; and mandatory sequestration, already slated to begin in 2013.
“Cuts in funding for hospital care will threaten jobs at a time when our nation needs to be creating jobs, not eliminating them,” says American Hospital Association (AHA) President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock. “H.R. 3630 would lead to further job loss in hospitals, an ill-advised move in these tough economic times.” The importance of hospitals to their communities extends far beyond health care, according to AMA.
In 2010, more than 4 million children were born in America’s hospitals. Hospitals employ more than 5.4 million people. Health care is responsible for 1 in 5 new jobs. Two out of every three dollars spent on hospital care goes to the wages and salaries of caregivers and other workers. The goods and services hospitals and hospital workers purchase from other businesses create additional jobs and economic value for their communities.
Hospitals rank second only to restaurants as the top source of private sector jobs. The Tripp Umbach study measures the effect of reductions in federal health care funding on both direct and indirect business volume and employment using an economic model developed by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. This model uses historical hospital employment patterns from the AHA Annual Survey and information from the Congressional Budget Office and analysis by AHA and the Moran Company on the potential level of cuts.
AMA notes that America’s hospitals have long been an economic mainstay providing stability and growth even during times of recession. Despite the sluggish economy, the health care sector employs 36 percent more people than it did 10 years ago. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that hospitals created 89,000 jobs in 2011. As the country faces a demographic shift in which more and more seniors will be in need of hospital care, Congress is implementing policies that will result in fewer caregivers being able to care for them.
The Tripp Umbach report and other resources are available at www.aha.org/jobs.
