A Healthy Health Sector is Crucial for Community Economic Development

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Abstract
This study presents a detailed model for measuring the economic effects of the health sector on a local economy. The total effects of the health sector on employment, income, retail sales, and sales tax collection by health category (hospitals, doctors and dentists, nursing and residential facilities, other medical and health services, and pharmacies) is presented. The model's application in nine Oklahoma counties found that approximately 9 percent of the total employment for each county was directly working in the health sector. With multipliers ranging from 1.45 to 1.87 applied to measure the total effects, including secondary employment, the health sector accounted for approximately 14 percent of all employment. This study provides an overview of the model, which employs local data and county input‐output multipliers. The study illustrates the usefulness and simplicity of the model by presenting results for Perry, OK.