Doctors Tally the Value They Bring to Communities

The AMA's American Medical World News has an article this week about how many dollars physicians bring into their local communities.   For instance, physicians in Kansas have $2.7 billion in payroll, and in Georgia each private practice physician supports 13 jobs (total of $10 billion in payroll and $20 billion in economic activity).  

This helps make it clear just how tough it is to cut dollars from the health care system. Hospitals are usually the largest employers in their communities, and physicians are also responsible for good jobs at good wages - just what we need more of right now!

Many health care policy experts believe that we can remove 1/3 of the cost of health care without any adverse health effects.  However, the adverse economic effects of this would be huge -- so it's likely that this can only be done over a long period of time.