In response to the potential sequester’s cuts to Medicare, the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council President and CEO Steve Love was interviewed by Bill Hethcock of The Dallas Business Journal in a Feb. 26 blog.

“Sequester cuts to Medicare will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs and cut hospital margins dangerously thin,” Love said. “We think as you look at the ripple effect of this, all the way up to 2021, it’s going to cost over 766,000 health-related jobs and almost 50,000 health care-related jobs in Texas.”

Hospital margins are going to take a beating because of decreased Medicare reimbursement, which will then impact investing in technology and capital expenditures, Love said.

“In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the 80 member hospitals in the council contribute $12 billion to the economy and create 240,000 jobs directly or indirectly,” he said.

Love was reacting to Medicare cuts, projected as part of $85 billion in automatic spending cuts set to hit the government on Friday. With other hospital reductions, including $155 billion in reimbursement cutbacks over a 10-year period that hospitals agreed to as part of the Affordable Care Act, it could have a profound effect on North Texas health care.

Hethcock is the health care, law, education and nonprofits reporter for The Dallas Business Journal. The blog can be found here.

An Feb. 27 update to the blog can be found here.