Experts to speak on economic outlook at Feb. 15 seminar

A nurse begins her night shift at Kalispell Regional Medical Center. File photo by Lido Vizzutti | Flathead Beacon

Thats the message from the University of Montanas Bureau of Business and Economic Research, and will be part of the overall 38th Annual Montana Economic Outlook 2013 presentation and seminar at the Hilton Garden Inn on Feb. 15.

This years seminar is titled, The Best Medicine: How Can Montanans Take Charge of Changes in Health Care? and will include a keynote address from Larry White, director of the Western Montana Area Health Education Center at the University of Montana, about the latest developments in health care.

The Economic Outlook seminar travels to Montanas major cities, and will have city-specific information at each event. At Kalispells seminar, Gregg Davis, director of health care research for the BBER, will provide health care information about the Flathead.

Health care is an engine of growth up there, Davis said.

Davis said he compiled information from quarterly census reports, which say the wage growth in the private sector grew at an annualized rate of 2.7 percent from 2005 through 2011.

But wages in the private health care sector grew at an annualized rate of 9 percent in that same time frame, Davis said.

In terms of employment, 2005 to 2011 is a pretty flat time for the Flathead, Davis said, but health care employment grew at 4 percent a year in those years. Other research concluded that in the past decade, Flathead Countys health care growth was the second fastest in the state, behind Gallatin County.

The health care sector is really pulling the economy along, Davis said.

Excerpt from:

Health Care is the Flathead’s ‘Engine of Growth’