Georgetown U’s Report on Healthcare

By John Graham

September 29th, 2012

Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute has published online its comprehensive assessment of Healthcare in the United States. You can download the Full report or a 16-page Executive Summary. Among their findings: 18 per cent of the U.S. economy goes to healthcare, twice the average for European nations. The report also looks at two labor markets in healthcare — high-skilled professional and technical jobs and low-skill, low-wage support jobs. It outlines the growing demand for post-secondary graduation in the fields of study. Upskilled in nursing is also growing fast. There is a look at the growth STEM fields (science, technology, engineery and mathematics).  The report also looks at attitudes and culture of healthcare workers.  For example, they tend to value “relationship” and “support” in the workplace and have “social” work interests. Healthcare workers are predominately female, yet make less than men. Healthcare has the highest proportion of foreign-born and foreign-trained workers in the country. The healthcare workforce is growing in ethnic diversity.  No surprise is the finding that Physicians and other doctors are the highest income earners in the country and doctors tend to come from high-income families of origon.  Shortages in healthcare are predominately in rural areas and in certain sub-specialities.  My summary gives but a glimpse at this amazing collection of data on Healthcare in the U.S.   To find the report go to: http://cew.georgetown.edu/healthcare/.