Saturday, March 19, 2005

Will for-profit or non-for-profit hospitals benefit society's economic growth?

It is reported that "There are almost 5,000 hospitals in the United States - 85 percent of which are not-for-profit like the hospitals of Texas Health Resources: Presbyterian, Harris Methodist and Arlington Memorial. Typically, the not-for-profit and for-profit hospital sectors provide similar services, compete for the same patients, and get paid by the same sources. However, they differ significantly in many other ways.
For-profit organizations are responsible to their shareholders for a return on investment. Not-for-profit hospitals are accountable to patients, employers and insurers who pay for medical care, and as assets of the communities in which they operate.
Not-for-profit organizations are required to contribute a portion of their earnings to care for the underserved and demonstrate health improvement in their communities. Some examples include providing care for the homeless and those without funds to pay, conducting childhood-immunization and asthma prevention programs, and reaching out through nursing programs to schools and the home-bound. "
It is obvious that non-for-profit hospitals benefit people and make society filled with warmth. Also, the program of non-for-profit hospitals give people more impetus to work hard and contribute their society from which they get their medicare. However, for-profit hospitals give their profit to the share-holders who will use this amount of money to reinvestment, which also benfit economic growth. If we have to support one of the healthcare ( for-profit or non-for-profit) , which one you suggest to perform?
http://www2.texashealth.org/krld/2004/01-28_August2001.asp

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