St. Joseph, MO crowned as having the fourth highest hospital costs in the nation according to U.S. General Accountability Office.
St. Joseph, MO – October 28, 2010 – St. Joseph, MO has the fourth-highest hospital costs in the nation according to a report by the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO). St. Joseph hospital costs were a shocking fifty-eight percent higher than the national average. The report attributes the lack of hospital competition as the cause of the excessive costs.
“Having the 4th highest hospital costs in the country – some 58% above the national average – is wrong and we deserve better… It’s costing us jobs and lowering our paychecks which are now 17% below the state average,” proclaimed Jason Gregory, Republican candidate for Missouri House District 27.
A debate over high healthcare costs has taken center stage in St. Joseph. Mr. Gregory, a former healthcare executive, even challenged Dr. Mark Laney, CEO of Heartland Health, to a public debate over the exceptional high healthcare costs.
Mr. Gregory believes St. Joseph’s lack of quality, family-wage jobs is directly attributable to St. Joseph’s high cost of healthcare problem. His plan to create jobs is to change Missouri’s Certificate of Need law which determines where a hospital can be built. He blames the lack of hospital competition for the high costs and the law for preventing other hospitals from moving into the city.
The GAO report is the most recent comprehensive national healthcare cost study that has been performed and was ordered by Congress due to it’s concern over the healthcare spending burden facing the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the largest private health insurance program in the country.
To verify St. Joseph’s ranking visit page 14 and 49 of the report: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05856.pdf
Contact :
Jason Gregory
JasonforJobs
Saint Joseph, MO
816-396-5455
[email protected]
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05856.pdf
