WASHINGTON and NEW YORK – A new policy research brief released today by the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services examines the potential economic benefit, including job creation opportunities, from investments in community health centers.
The brief, titled “Community Health Centers and the Economy: Assessing Centers’ Role in Immediate Job Creation Efforts,” finds that investment in community health centers generates an estimated 8:1 return for medically underserved communities while creating thousands of jobs. The researchers estimate that the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), would have provided $36 billion in new economic benefits and would support 316,000 new jobs. The report also estimates that the impact of the subsequent $600 million federal spending reduction in April 2011 translates to an estimated $1 billion loss in economic stimulus for rural and urban medically-underserved communities and 10,000 fewer job opportunities.
