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Hospitals in the US are not especially profitable. Including federal relief, median hospital profit margin is 2%. The whole market is wildly distorted- startin

Hospitals in the US are not especially profitable. Including federal relief, median hospital profit margin is 2%. The whole market is wildly distorted- starting with doctor education up through private insurance and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid- that simple answers like this totally miss the mark.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
spamizbad 5y ago
Profit in this sense likely refers to the value of the hospital (or greater provider network) rather than simply their EBITDA or whatever.
briHass 5y ago
Agreed. Any simplistic statement like "the problem with healthcare in the US is [blank]" is evidence of someone that doesn't know very much about the many complex and interlinked issues. Likewise, someone thinking the system can be fixed by "just doing X" is also being reductionist. The pandemic showed a number of areas in healthcare where people were generally ignorant. For example, thinking that hospitals have tons of reserve capacity to handle extraordinary events. Even well before the current situation, hospitals (community) tended to run at about 80% occupancy. Far from being a profit-consideration, even the department of Health and Human Services mandated that hospitals had to run at least 55% occupancy, or they lost benefits.
- skybrian 5y ago
  The pandemic is a bit unusual in affecting everyone at once. For a local or regional problem, staffing wouldn't be as much of an issue because workers can travel. (For example, traveling nurses.)
- cromka 5y ago
  > Any simplistic statement like "the problem with healthcare in the US is [blank]" is evidence of someone that doesn't know very much But who made such statement in this discussion?
cromka 5y ago
> that simple answers like this totally miss the mark. I am not providing my "answer" to the US problem, I am merely noticing how strikingly different approach the healthcare has here, so I reject your insinuation. To be honest, I don't need to care who's making how much money to make a point – all I know that from my perspective, at the end of the day it is about milking the patient and it differs wildly from the general EU experience.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

spamizbad 5y ago

Profit in this sense likely refers to the value of the hospital (or greater provider network) rather than simply their EBITDA or whatever.

briHass 5y ago

Agreed. Any simplistic statement like "the problem with healthcare in the US is [blank]" is evidence of someone that doesn't know very much about the many complex and interlinked issues. Likewise, someone thinking the system can be fixed by "just doing X" is also being reductionist. The pandemic showed a number of areas in healthcare where people were generally ignorant. For example, thinking that hospitals have tons of reserve capacity to handle extraordinary events. Even well before the current situation, hospitals (community) tended to run at about 80% occupancy. Far from being a profit-consideration, even the department of Health and Human Services mandated that hospitals had to run at least 55% occupancy, or they lost benefits.

skybrian 5y ago
The pandemic is a bit unusual in affecting everyone at once. For a local or regional problem, staffing wouldn't be as much of an issue because workers can travel. (For example, traveling nurses.)
cromka 5y ago
> Any simplistic statement like "the problem with healthcare in the US is [blank]" is evidence of someone that doesn't know very much But who made such statement in this discussion?

cromka 5y ago

> that simple answers like this totally miss the mark. I am not providing my "answer" to the US problem, I am merely noticing how strikingly different approach the healthcare has here, so I reject your insinuation. To be honest, I don't need to care who's making how much money to make a point – all I know that from my perspective, at the end of the day it is about milking the patient and it differs wildly from the general EU experience.