An additional 83,000 jobs could be lost if Congress enacts nearly $20 billion in Medicare cuts to funding for hospital care included in H.R. 3630, House-passed legislation extending the Social Security tax holiday, unemployment insurance and the physician fix, according to an updated analysis by a firm specializing in economic impact studies. That's in addition to an estimated 194,000 jobs that will be lost through mandatory sequestration slated to begin in 2013, which includes $41.5 billion in cuts to Medicare payments to hospitals over nine years.
Two of every three dollars spent on hospital care goes to wages and salaries for caregivers and other workers. Hospitals, which rank second only to restaurants as the top source of private-sector jobs, created 89,000 jobs in 2011.
"Cuts in funding for hospital care will threaten jobs at a time when our nation needs to be creating jobs, not eliminating them," said American Hospital Association President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock. "H.R. 3630 would lead to further job losses in hospitals, an ill-advised move in these tough economic times."
Find Mississippi's job loss numbers here.
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