With the recession currently hanging over the heads of many Americans, it is little surprise that several industries have gone to the government to seek financial aid. However, are taxpayers the ones who should be bailing out these companies and corporations for their faulty business investments and poor financial planning? Or has the recession taken a serious toll on these industries, forcing them to plead for help from the American government? These questions were on the minds of many when the American automobile-making industry recently asked for federal assistance. Shadows of this issue reappear as hospitals now look to the federal and state governments for help. However, considering the current plight of the taxpayer, the extraneous spending and the recent surpluses in past years, hospitals should not expect a free ride from the federal government in order to overcome their financial woes.
Many are wondering just how, after reporting a total over billions of dollars in surplus for the fiscal year of 2007, so many hospitals are in the red just one year later. A recent Capital Times article raises questions about this issue, wondering whether a nonprofit industry one year should be given any financial support the next. Perhaps if we look to the massive cranes and construction sites of these hospitals, we will find where much of this money is going. Do these hospitals really need all these massive buildings, decked with fountains, atriums and other vast luxuries? Likely not, and this sort of wasteful spending and poor decision-making on the part of these hospitals needs to stop. It really is no wonder how many of them are facing the financial shortcomings they are.
However, one must realize that letting our nation's health industry go by the wayside is a bad idea, no matter what mistakes they have made in the past. Simply denying them help would only hurt the nation as a whole. What would make sense is offering these hospitals stimulus packages, but with certain strings attached. The American taxpayers will give them money, but in return, the American taxpayers should expect to get something back. Ideally, we give hospitals just enough to balance their bills for now, but in exchange, over the course of a set amount of years, when the economy has stabilized a bit, these nonprofit hospitals that require aid should begin offering more services to those who cannot afford certain health-care options.
According to the Capital Times, 92 percent of Wisconsin hospitals are nonprofit, meaning they get various state benefits, including no property or sales taxes - but this stems from the fact that these hospitals are providing community benefits."" However, almost all of these hospitals are contributing less than two percent of their net patient revenue to charity cases. In addition, many of these hospitals hound patients and aggressively attack those who are late on bills and payments. How big of a help have these hospitals really been to the community? If these hospitals really expect the taxpayers to help bail them out of their respective financial crises, then these hospitals should be giving back to taxpayers by offering up more services to the underprivileged. Also, if the government does provide support to these institutions, then certain restrictions on where this sort of money would go should need to be applied. Unrelenting expansion of current facilities cannot be in the picture, as is depicted by the three major hospitals in the Madison area: St. Mary's, Meriter and the UW Hospital. All three of these fixtures have multimillion-dollar expansion and remodeling projects adding to or currently on existing structures. Is all this really necessary? Probably not.
So how much do these hospitals deserve? It is a question that will likely be faced by the national government soon. Although Wisconsin hospitals are doing better than some other states' hospitals, such as New Jersey and Hawaii, the Capital Times points out that the time is coming when Wisconsin medical institutes will have to face this growing financial strain.
Understandably, the federal government may have to bail out these institutes despite public outcry, but that also gives us a chance to pull the reins on these hospitals, stopping the overspending and forcing them to increase the meager efforts put into community projects.
Ryan Dashek is a junior majoring in biology. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
