Factories fading, hospitals step in

Medical facilities are replacing factories as healthcare begins to fuel local economies across the country, but there are downsides to healthcare's ever-increasing role. A community that relies on health jobs can end up with a weaker economy because it is overly dependent on government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Greater inequality is a risk in healthcare, too--there tends to be a wider income gap between what the highest- and lowest-paid workers earn than there is in manufacturing.