Physicians contributed $1.6 trillion to economy in 2012
A new report commissioned by the American Medical Association (AMA) attempts to quantify the direct and indirect economic output of physicians in order to educate policy makers and the public.
Released the week following the public disclosure of individual physician Medicare payments, the report puts the average total output of each physician at $2,195,426. In addition, on average, each physician supported almost 14 jobs, including his or her own. That means that while the public may be focusing on how much doctors get paid by the government, payments for physician services also generates an economic return, not unlike government spending on more tangible improvements, such as investments in infrastructure.
The report also found that physicians supported median total state and local taxes of $440.4 million and mean total state and local taxes of $938.3 million.
Produced by Alexandria, Va.-based health information firm IMS Health, the report draws on data from the AMA’s 2012 AMA Masterfile of 720,421 physicians, the 2012 Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) Cost Survey, and the nationally-recognized 2011 IMPLAN (IMpact analysis for PLANning) multipliers for calculating indirect economic impact.
Criticism of the report has focused on whether these data sources are up to date and if the IMPLAN multipliers as employed by the report authors may have generated a larger economic impact than was actually there. However, the point that spending on medical services does create jobs, improve local economies and help create taxable revenues is hard to dispute.
Contributor
Lena Kauffman is a contributing writer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.