Hospitals, Health Care, and Indiana's Economy

Interesting bit of reporting in the Indianapolis Business Journal's Small Towns, Big Business, although I am not sure how Kokomo became a rural community:

The hospital is planning to expand to meet rising demand, which means it will add to its 170-person staff. That’s good news for Williamsport as the nation settles into another economic downturn.

But it’s a mixed blessing for businesses in the area. They expect to see higher hospital prices, which would hike the costs of their employee health benefits. That makes it harder for employers to keep and add jobs.

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“People get jobs. But in the long term, who pays for this?” said Les Zwirn, a former executive at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis who now is helping to organize a reform group called Hoosiers for Better Healthcare. “Well, we know who pays for this. Families pay for it through increased premiums and loss of coverage. And employers pay for it in terms of depressing wages and trying to slim down and scale down coverage.”

Even hospital leaders agree with those claims—to a point.

“We’re a source of costs for the businesses,” acknowledged Doug Leonard, president of the Indiana Hospital Association. “But on the other side of the coin, we provide a lot of benefits for the community.”