During their 2005 fiscal years, Virginia hospitals provided almost $1 billion in charity care to patients — more than triple their 2000 contributions, according to a report filed by Virginia Health Information. Where does that money come from? From hospitals — and their privately insured patients.
Which paying customers? Not Medicare or Medicaid. The federal government is so big and has so much purchasing power that it can set its reimbursement rates at below market rates. One in five hospitals in Virginia lost money in 2005. As a rule, those were hospitals stuck with a higher percentage of indigent patients (who pay nothing) and Medicaid patients (who get the lowest reimbursements) and the fewest private pays (which pay the most). The healthiest hospitals tend to be the suburban facilities that can pass the losses from their unprofitable business onto privately insured patients.
It’s just one more way to shaft the middle class. The progressive federal tax code is bad enough, especially now that the Alternative Minimum Tax is kicking in for tens of millions of taxpayers. But it’s only the beginning. The Virginia income tax is more progressive now than it was in 2004, thanks to “tax reform.” There is also the higher ed wealth transfer in the form of higher tuitions that help pay for scholarships for the needy. And, then, there’s the health care system paid for predominantly by working-class and salaried stiffs whose insurance premiums go up 10 percent a year.
It never ends.
