More than 760,000 healthcare jobs nationwide could be lost by 2021 due to Medicare spending cuts implemented last year, according to a recent report by the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association and American Nurses Association.
The report listed California, Florida and Texas as the states that would be affected most severely by cuts, with the Golden State hit hardest with an estimated 78,000 healthcare jobs lost. Cuts would place additional financial burdens on hospitals already operating in the red, said C. Duane Dauner, President/CEO of the California Hospital Association.
“Another 2-percent payment reduction may not seem like a big number, but these cuts would be in addition to more than $17 billion in slashed Medicare payments California hospitals are already scheduled to absorb by 2020 as a result of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act,” Dauner said.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the healthcare industry created 169,800 jobs in the first half of 2012 and accounted for one out of every 5 jobs created this year.