AHCA threatens Ohio’s growing health care sector
Posted May 23, 2017 in Press Releases
Across the state, Ohio’s health care sector has been steadily adding jobs since 2008, even in places where overall employment has been dropping. The American Health Care Act (AHCA), passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month, threatens this increasingly important part of Ohio's economy.
In a tele-press conference today, Policy Matters Ohio released a new report that shows, county by county, how the state's health care sector is growing. Between 2000 and 2015, the percentage of Ohio jobs provided by the private health care sector increased from 11.1 percent to 14.9 percent. More than one out of seven Ohioans — a total of 676,948 people— worked in the private health care sector in 2015.
If the AHCA becomes law, places like the Premier Atrium Medical Center in Middletown could face massive cuts. “Premier Health stands to lose $861.1 million in Medicaid cuts through 2026 and see a $182 million increase in costs for treating people who are uninsured,” said Mike Uhl, President of Premier Atrium Medicaid Center. “Combined, these potential cuts to Medicaid funding and increases in uncompensated care would undermine the health care safety net that our hospitals have become for our communities’ most vulnerable citizens. They also would force us to cut services and eliminate jobs.”
The private health sector helped counties like Jefferson offset large losses in overall jobs, and manufacturing jobs in particular. In 2015, 23.3 percent of the county’s private sector jobs were in health care, the highest percentage in the state. Manufacturing jobs in Jefferson fell from 15.2 percent of overall employment in 2000 to 5.3 percent in 2015.
The health care sector looms large in both urban counties like Cuyahoga, and rural counties like Monroe, Scioto and Lawrence. The Counseling Center in Scioto County treats people struggling with addiction in Southwest Ohio. Since Medicaid expansion in December 2013, it added 67 full-time jobs, resulting in $2.3 million in payroll.
“Medicaid expansion is the single biggest thing to ever happen to our agency,” said Counseling Center CEO Andy Albrecht. Under expansion, Counseling Center has been able bring substance abuse treatment to 1,100 men across southern Ohio who would not have been eligible for Medicaid prior to expansion.
In 2016, Medicaid expansion brought $95.5 million a month in federal funding to Northeast Ohio alone. The Economic Policy Institute found Ohio could lose 81,385 jobs between 2017-2022 if the AHCA becomes law.
“Clearly the health care sector is increasingly important to Ohio’s still struggling economy,” said Policy Matters Senior Project Manager Wendy Patton. “This is the wrong time to destabilize it further.”
Download growinghealthcaresector-sopko-may2017.pdf