With a two-year state budget plan set to be unveiled next week, the state’s hospitals want lawmakers to know they are a major contributor to the state’s economy in an effort to save off another round of funding cuts.
The Connecticut Hospital Association has issued a report that says the state’s acute care hospitals contribute $20.1 billion to the state’s economy.
That includes $10.7 billion in annual local payroll, $7.5 billion in goods and services, and $1.7 billion in capital spending, the report said.
The report comes more than a month after state lawmakers cut $103 million in funding to hospitals to help close a budget deficit for the current fiscal year. Hospitals are now concerned that further funding cuts will hit their industry as lawmakers prepare a two-year budget that needs to close $1 billion deficits over the next two fiscal years.
The hospital association report also says Connecticut’s hospitals and health systems provide more than 54,000 jobs, with a total annual  payroll of $5.2 billion.Â
