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ESCANABA -- Every year, $100,000,000 leaves the U.P. because residents are going elsewhere for medical care, primarily Wisconsin.  Friday at a conference in Escanaba, medical officials said the problem is more the result of marketing than of medicine.

"The perception that the quality is greater in Wisconsin than what they can find in the U.P...I think the perception is driven by (medical professionals in) Wisconsin where they've done a very effective job over the last decade marketing their value," says Jeff Connolly of Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Robert Kraig of Citizen Action of Wisconsin says medical care is actually much more expensive in Wisconsin and that U.P. residents could save money by getting treated closer to home.

"Health care is much more expensive here (Wisconsin) than it is over the border in the Michigan U.P., so there's an issue where health care is costing employers in the U.P. more, and people are losing jobs because people are actually going down and getting health care in Wisconsin, and it's more expensive, it raises insurance rates and costs for employers," says Kraig.

Health care professionals at the conference say that the health care industry is the largest employer in the state of Michigan.  In the U.P. alone, it employs over 12,000 people with a total payroll of $598.3 million.  Officials also say that's what's at stake if more people don't start getting medical treatment locally.

"We do a lot of programs with Northern Michigan University, we help train the nursing students, the surgical tech students, and we'd love for those people to stay in the U.P., but it's tough for them to find jobs," says Dr. Richard Rovin of Marquette General.

What are U.P. health care officials doing to get the word out about the quality of local health care?  They're coming together.

"We've consolidated ourselves with Superior Health Partners; we're developing integrated methods of providing care for our patients and we're marketing that.  We're letting people know the good message," says Thomas Noren of Superior Health Partners.