I was curious, too. I found this older article on Forbes, which cites MedPACs annual report- http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2011/09/21/medpac-64-of-hospitals

I was curious, too. I found this older article on Forbes, which cites MedPACs annual report- http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2011/09/21/medpac-64-of-hospitals-lose-money-on-medicare-patients/#7cb5864914a4 http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2011/09/21/medpac-64-of-hos... Note, many of these hospitals are nonprofit, and benefit from donations and grants too- so it isn't entirely clear that they need to earn a profit or even break-even on "patient care" alone. With all that being said, the Forbes article seems to be promoting the idea of making patients pay higher co-pays in order to prevent them from actually using their Medicare benefits, and reducing the demand for health care overall. It seems to me like a much better strategy would be to increase the supply of care (More training facilities to increase #'s of doctors, better, more streamlined regulations to reduce the operating costs, etc).... but it doesn't seem like the politicians are interested in fixing the real problems in healthcare. We shall see what the new Congress/President brings to the take, but I don't hold much hope