HCA & the Real World as We Know It
If we had to identify the most important Nashville business development in the last half-century, it would have to be the creation of Hospital Corp. of America. More than giving birth to a single business, HCA spawned an entire economy. Dozens ofspin-offs and entrepreneurial health care endeavors emerged as a result of the private hospital company. Many jobs were created, and a bunch of people became very rich. Ask Phil Bredesen.
HCA is not so much a local organism as an international behemoth. From its headquarters overlooking Centennial Park, it oversees a juggernaut that provides more health care services to more people than any other organization in America. Operating worldwide, it employs 190,000 people.
Last week, HCA was in the news. The company announced that it was making same-sex partners of its employees eligible for benefits. What this means is that if you're gay, and you work for HCA, your partner can enroll in your health plan. He or she can also enjoy any of the other benefits that a heterosexual partner of an HCA employee would typically enjoy.
HCA joins numerous other Fortune 500 companies now providing such benefits. One wonders whether HCA truly welcomed the opportunity to provide such benefits or whether the company simply had to do so to compete in today's marketplace.
As with many other high-caliber, transglobal corporations that rely on a skilled workforce, HCA knows that without such benefits, it loses access to some of the best and the brightest. "If you look at the footprint of a corporation like HCA, it's competing with international businesses to get the most valuable members of the workforce they need," says Brandon Hutchison, interim director of the newly formed Tennessee Equality Project, which is lobbying state officials on gay and lesbian issues. "They're recruiting from places like New York and California, where such benefits are standard."
As Richard Florida pointed out in his recent book The Rise of the Creative Class, there's a distinct correlation between dynamic, creative cities that foster high levels of economic activity and how those cities treat their gay and lesbian communities. The thesis is that entrepreneurs flourish in environments that are open-minded, intellectually curious and socially egalitarian. Gays and lesbians not only flourish—but like to live in—the same kinds of environments. To Florida, this is not just conjecture. He's actually got the facts to prove that the hottest entrepreneurial cities also have some of the best women's softball teams around.
Of course, HCA's actions are not without irony.
First of all, the man who built the company, Dr. Thomas Frist Jr., is the brother of the current majority leader, U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, who has advocated a constitutional amendment that would effectively ban gay marriage.
Second, Nashville's own Metro Council balked last year when some of its members tried to extend housing and employment protection to the city's gay employees. At a local level, Nashville is a long way from open-mindedness on the issue of gay rights.
But HCA deserves credit. While our political leaders are falling all over themselves to demagogue on the issue, our private institutions are leading the way. The stark truth is that they are showing leadership on the issue because this is what the world demands. Either they accept things like domestic benefits for same-sex partners, or they get left in the dust by nightfall. As popular as it is in liberal quarters to bash capitalism as an uncaring, unethical force, the private sector lives and dies by its human capital. In this case, making money—and acting enlightened—have found a happy marriage.
