[1]NNU - Medicare for All!



To continue our series shining the spotlight on bad actors in our broken
health care system, today we want to talk about the hospital industry.

In 2020, a National Nurses United report found that hospitals in the U.S.
on average charge patients more than four times the cost of care, with
charges outpacing costs over the past 20 years: between 1999 and 2018, the
charge-to-cost ratio doubled, which means hospitals are fleecing
patients.^1

[ [link removed] ]Figure 10: U.S. Hospitals’ Average Charge-to-Cost Ratio, 1999-2018

Part of the problem is for-profit hospitals. Our report found that of the
100 hospitals with the highest charges relative to their costs, for-profit
corporations own or operate 95 of them. And all of the top 100 hospitals
are owned by hospital systems, as opposed to being independently operated
community hospitals.^2

Today, for-profit corporations often buy up hospitals in a given area,
creating a monopoly that allows them to jack up the prices once they’ve
eliminated their competition. According to the University of Pennsylvania,
hospital consolidations have swept the country over the last three
decades, which has only increased costs for patients while worsening
access and care quality.^3

But not-for-profit hospitals can still be part of the problem too. Our
Preying on Patients report found that from 2009 to 2018, Maryland’s
not-for-profit hospital system filed 145,746 medical debt lawsuits seeking
$268,711,620 from low-income patients — at least 3,278 of those lawsuits
ended with the patients filing for bankruptcy. This medical debt comprised
4.7 percent of net income, while executive compensation made up 46.6
percent, with hospital executives making millions of dollars. To make
matters worse, these same hospitals provided less and less charity care
over the years to patients, despite being heavily subsidized.^4

It doesn’t have to be this way, and a single-payer system like Medicare
for All would start to address some of these issues in the hospital
industry. Hospitals would never have to charge patients directly for care
of any kind -- all medically necessary services would be covered by
Medicare, with no more out of pocket costs for patients. Additionally,
hospitals serving vulnerable communities in rural and underserved areas
would benefit from reliable and equitable funding, which will improve
health care in these communities and prevent hospital closures.^5

Together, we must keep up our collective fight for health care justice for
all by building the political will to pass Medicare for All.

In solidarity,

Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All

Sources:
[ [link removed] ]1 - Fleecing Patients: Hospitals Charge Patients More Than Four Times
the Cost of Care
2 - Ibid
[ [link removed] ]3 - Hospital Consolidation Continues to Boost Costs, Narrow Access, and
Impact Care Quality
[ [link removed] ]4 - Preying on Patients: Maryland's Not-for-Profit Hospitals and
Medical Debt Lawsuits
[ [link removed] ]5 - Medicare for All Act Fact Sheet



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