Non-Profit Hospitals Profiting off Taxpayers

https://dcjournal.com/non-profit-hospitals-profiting-off-taxpayers/

Large nonprofit hospitals are distorting the healthcare system by engaging 
in pricing that increases costs on taxpayers. Our nation needs to move 
toward a market-based, free-market system that has been the cornerstone of 
the U.S. economy. The reason Americans have such a high standard of living 
and have good healthcare is that the federal government has resisted 
political voices calling for a socialist system.

Healthcare is a massive expense for Americans. The health policy 
organization KFF, on February 24, reported that “the federal government 
spent $1.9 trillion on healthcare programs and services in fiscal year 
2024, 27 percent of all federal outlays in that year, and collectively the 
largest category of federal spending.” 

To put this into perspective, the federal government spent $6.75 trillion 
in 2024 and carried a deficit of $1.8 trillion. The federal government is 
spending too much, and it is time to crack down on overspending on 
healthcare with this program.

The nation is creeping toward a single-payer system of healthcare that 
would remove the market forces that keep costs down. The price right now 
is staggering. The military budget for 2024 was $874 billion, and $880 
billion on interest on the debt, far less added together than federal cash 
spent on healthcare. The national debt is fast becoming a bigger national 
security threat than our traditional adversaries.

The 340B Drug Pricing Program has become a case study in how government is 
getting it wrong. The program is a mandate on drug manufacturers that work 
with healthcare facilities to sell outpatient prescription drugs at a 
discount. Nonprofit hospitals participate in the program and purchase 
these drugs, yet they sell them at an inflated price. This shifts more 
costs onto taxpayers and causes inflation for patients.

This issue was highlighted in a recent letter from a coalition of 
conservative groups. A letter to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and 
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, sent on July 16, argued, “Hospitals 
receive approximately 37 percent of all Medicare spending, and 32 percent 
of all Medicaid spending, a total of around $650 billion annually.” 

This has become a wasteland of dependence and fraud. The groups point out 
that nonprofit hospitals don’t pay a corporate income tax for them to 
serve the public good, yet “charitable care is hard to find at these 
hospitals” and “there is a $26 billion gap between the tax exemption large 
nonprofit hospitals enjoy, and the amount of charity care they provide.” 

The larger the nonprofit hospital, the greater the gap between the taxes 
they avoid and the profit they retain.

The 340B program was established to help lower-income Americans. One 
problem is that the hospital networks are extensive and target wealthy 
areas, which ends up increasing costs on taxpayers. The government has 
fallen short in conducting more thorough studies of these applications 
while failing to fully define who is, and who is not, an eligible patient 
for these drugs. 

Studies show that costs are soaring as part of this program. The research 
firm Millman reported in June that some nonprofit hospitals are marking up 
prescription medicines by as much as 1,000 percent and opt for higher-cost 
medicines when lower-cost substitutes are available.

President Trump has made some positive changes in healthcare. The 
secretary of Health and Human Services has pushed a Make America Healthy 
Again agenda and imposed hard-to-reassess mandates on American citizens. 
The nation needs leaders who promote healthy living. The Right-to-Try 
legislation, signed during Trump’s first term, was an effort to expand 
freedom to allow those with severe life-threatening illnesses access to 
lifesaving drugs.

It is time for the administration to take a hard look at the policies of 
nonprofit hospitals to make sure they are serving the public good. One way 
to do that would be to impose more guardrails on the 340B program in a way 
to save taxpayers’ money.


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama 
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.