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For-profit hospitals are a stain on the American healthcare system. I worked for one of these facilities years ago, and elective surgery was the only thing the
by catacombs 6y ago
For-profit hospitals are a stain on the American healthcare system.
I worked for one of these facilities years ago, and elective surgery was the only thing the administrators cared about.
- twunde 6y agoIt's not just for-profit hospitals, non-profits are very focused on elective surgery as well. Why? Because elective surgery is the money maker for the business. Healthcare systems typically have profit margins between 1-4% with 4% being on the high side. For comparison SAAS businesses typically have profit margins of 70-95% [1]. 1 - https://www.lightercapital.com/blog/calculating-gross-margin-for-your-saas-business/ https://www.lightercapital.com/blog/calculating-gross-margin...
- areyousure 6y agoJust out of curiosity, is your comment about "for-profit hospitals" a non sequitur? Your parent comment refers to the Mayo Clinic, which is neither "for-profit" nor "a stain on the American healthcare system".
- sudosysgen 6y agoThe existence of for-profit healthcare is reasonably why hospitals have to shut departments in the middle of a pandemic to handle balance sheets. If for-profit healthcare didn't exist, I really don't see how the total amount of money going into a hospital would decrease right now.
- bitcurious 6y agoYou are conflating “for profit” with private. Most good hospitals are non profit, but private institutions. To help you understand how this could decrease revenue - my annual checkup is postponed by 6 months. This is true for everyone who had an annual checkup scheduled.
- sudosysgen 6y agoI agree. but the existence of for-profit healthcare is largely why the US is the only country without public healthcare.
- opo 6y agoThis is a common misconception about health care. Most countries have a mix of private/public funding a mix of private/public run health care. Canada is almost all non-profit charity hospitals, but other OECD countries use for profit hospitals. For example: >...The study, released Tuesday, compared the universal health-care systems of Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, and looked at the presence of for-profit hospitals and for-profit health-care insurers in each of these countries. ... The study found that for-profit health-care insurers and for-profit hospitals are found in all six countries. This is in contrast to Canada, where similar for-profit insurance is not allowed, and where only a small number of private, for-profit hospitals exist. https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/for-profit-care-can-exist-in-a-universal-health-care-system-fraser-institute-study-1.2672098 https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/for-profit-care-can-exist-in-a...
- sudosysgen 6y agoSure, but in all of those countries health care insurers are incredibly tightly controlled and the state is still by far the biggest insurer. Which is why the state can and will fund hospitals directly after this crisis.
- opo 6y ago>Sure, but in all of those countries health care insurers are incredibly tightly controlled... Insurance companies in the US are also "incredibly tightly controlled". Regulations even specify amounts that can be spent on patient care, administration etc. Health insurers are the only segment of the health care sector in the US where profits are directly limited. >Which is why the state can and will fund hospitals directly after this crisis. I don't think that has anything to do with it.
- refurb 6y agoWhat? Even non-profit, publicly funded hospitals are feeling the squeeze. Most are paid on a fee-for-service basis. If you cancel all your elective surgeries, there goes a huge chunk of funding. Yet you still need to pay salaries and other overhead. It's not like non-profit hospitals are suddenly immune to the realities of economics.
- sudosysgen 6y agoPublicly funded healthcare does not work the way you think it does. There is a budget allocated to healthcare every year, if one year the hospitals don't have enough money to cover expenses but that there is still money left in the coffers (for example, due to less electives), then they will end up getting the money they need to operate. Were it not for for-profit healthcare, the US would almost certainly operate this way.
- refurb 6y agoThere are probably 170 different versions of public systems. I think you're making the mistake of assuming they all operate the same way. In both public systems I've been a part of, yes there is a hospital budget, but it's paid out through procedures. Don't have anyone in the hospital? No payment.
- sudosysgen 6y agoSure, but what I'm telling you is that in the event of a major event that means that the amount of procedures goes down drastically which means the healthcare budget is not depleted, but that hospitals need to money to deal with a pandemic, the state steps in and will fund the hospitals.
- catacombs 6y agoMy parent comment does not mention Mayo Clinic. I'm mainly talking about hospitals that operate only for profit.
- notechback 6y agoApparently many US hospitals are formally non-profits but operate very much in a corporate logic. What did mayo do with its bn profit last year that Op mentioned? Mayo earns $12bn per year. As contrast, a hospitals in Germany for a whole year cost €105bn, with an average total cost per stay (including operations etc ) of 4500€. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2018/11/PD18_435_231.html https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2018/11...
- Ididntdothis 6y agoNon profits just make profits in a different way. Either the money goes to the leadership or into an endowment or new buildings or something else. Don’t confuse non profit with not greedy or not profitable. They are basically the same as for profit hospitals as far as cost goes.
- Spooky23 6y agoThe differences between the two aren't what you think.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]