“How can we develop our community economically to better attract health care providers and support improved health care services?”

A frustration often expressed by thoughtful community leaders echoes this conundrum: “We need more healthcare providers and/or improved health services infrastructure to enhance our economy, but we first need to improve our economy before we can attract and retain more health care professionals and services.”

Though the need for overall economic development planning is obvious to most Texas communities, regardless of their size or degree of rurality, it is not often that municipalities or counties pinpoint in dollars and cents just how vital local health care is to their economies.

According to statistics released by both federal and private agencies, the national average for per-person expenditure for nominal health care in 2000 was $4,461. Using that figure as a guide, multiply the number of county (or town) residents by that figure to find out how much money local residents spend on health care. [Source: Health United States, 2002; Estimating the Value of Investments in Health Care, http://www.medtap.com/Products/HP_Appendices.pdf ]

This figure can then be compared to the percentage of county tax revenues being spent in support of local health care services such as hospitals, ambulance services, home health care, etc. versus how each health care dollar can actually affect a local economy. The Rural Health Resource Center (RHRC) estimates that every health care dollar “rolls over” about 1.5 times in a rural community. And, every five jobs in health care can generate up to four other jobs in the local economy. (http://www.ruralcenter.org).

Unfortunately, an average of 50 percent of those health care dollars goes straight out of town to a “big city” or urban area, especially when rural communities are faced with the closing, downsizing or conversion to other levels of care of their local hospitals—a growing concern in communities throughout Texas.

To gain a quick overview of the effects of local hospital transitions on rural economic development, examine the case studies conducted by the Maine Rural Health Research Center as part of a national research initiative from 1997-2000. Printable files can be found online at http://www.rural-health.org/hospital.htm.

Key questions for any community interested in the interplay between health care and economics are: “How many health care dollars are spent in our local community?; “How much health care spending is actually retained in our local community?”; and “What can we do to help keep these dollars at home?”

To begin answering these questions demands only a basic grasp of statistical data applicable to local health care concerns and a firm commitment by community leadership to research, plan and initiate strategies for growth and change, on both a local and regional basis.