In recent weeks, two of the state’s biggest health-care providers, Iowa Health-Des Moines and Mercy Medical Center, have said they plan to spend more than $260 million in the coming years to build and renovate facilities in Central Iowa. Kirk Norris, president and chief executive of the Iowa Hospital Association, says health care’s importance to the community is too often overlooked.

Q: You recently finished a study measuring the health-care industry’s economic contribution to Iowa. Tell us about it.

A: We just finished meeting with our members, providing them with a county-by-county analysis of the multiplier effect that their institutions have on their communities. One of the things we found is that 23 percent of Iowa’s domestic product is related to health care. Most people are surprised to hear that. The governor and the Legislature are arguing over the Iowa Values Fund, and people get excited about throwing $20 million to $30 million at a biogenetic opportunity. Our input has been to tell people not to forget about that one-fifth of the economic pie called health care. That’s an economic engine. Besides, health care is high-tech.

Q: Why do you think that biotechnology has generated a lot of interest?

A: Other things, from a policy standpoint, are a lot sexier. They look at health care as the recipient of Medicare and Medicaid money. They don’t look at health care as a business force, or an economic force. They look at it more like a service industry. It is a service industry, but our whole economy is moving in that direction. Folks tend to think of health care as a necessity, but they don’t draw the line between that necessity and the foundation block that it provides for the economies of Iowa’s cities and towns. In many communities, health-care providers are the biggest employers. Frankly, the Iowa Hospital Association has changed its focus in the last 18 months to start pointing these issues out to people.

Q: What’s the association’s position on the hospital debate in West Des Moines, and what it might mean for health-care costs?

A: Historically, we have not taken positions on individual hospital plans. I will remind people that along with the plans that Iowa Health and Mercy have laid out, they’ve also spelled out the fact that they need to finance these projects within the constraints they live in every day. It’s not like they can push these costs out. In Iowa, there’s not a lot of negotiating clout in terms of providers’ ability to negotiate for additional benefits or money.