We-Have-to-Pass-It-to-See-What’s-In-It Fact of the Day
Faced with mounting debt and looming costs from the new federal health-care law, many local governments are leaving the hospital business, shedding public facilities that can be the caregiver of last resort… More than a fifth of the nation’s 5,000 hospitals are owned by governments and many are drowning in debt caused by rising health-care costs, a spike in uninsured patients, cuts in Medicare and Medicaid and payments on construction bonds sold in fatter times. Because most public hospitals tend to be solo operations, they don’t enjoy the economies of scale, or more generous insurance contracts, which bolster revenue at many larger nonprofit and for-profit systems.
Full article on local governments leaving the hospital business.
Ugly ObamaCare is coming at us from every angle.
From your cited article.
“The Coffee Health Group in northern Alabama has been in debt since the late 1990s, when bonds were sold to buy three health-care properties. In the past two years, Coffee couldn’t keep enough cash on hand to satisfy the bond insurer, said Ms. Fulmer, the commissioner.”
Sounds like poorly managed hospitals have been hit hard by the economic downturn. We have seen that in our area. Interesting that the for profits are still willing to buy them. I suspect it means more of a cash flow problem than anything else. Maybe the for profits dont know that Ugly ObamaCare is coming.
Steve
They will soon know Steve. Ugly ObamaCare will be the biggest topic in America between this years political debates and the Presidential Debates in 2012.
The safety net is going to be in tatters before this is over.