New Study on Regional Health Care Economies

The Milken Institute has just released a study of metro area health care economies, which is interesting reading. You can download it here. (Registration at the Milken website is required.)

There is one subtle issue that was not brought out by the Milken study, which is that health care is still largely seen as a "cost" to most other industries. Most employers are doing all they can to drive down health care costs.

I know several EDO's that have mounted huge crusades to crush health care costs because other sectors of the economy want to pay less for employee coverage. No doubt, health care is costly, and there are many reasons why that is the case.

Here is another interesting issue. The number one sought after industry cluster in America is "life sciences," which are closely linked to our health care services complex.
Most of these efforts are designed to increase spending on new technology and research related to biotech and life science equipment, products and services. What effect will all this have on health care costs?

Life poses some interesting paradoxes, doesn't it? I think you would benefit from a reading of the Milken report in any case.