If the country is facing a nationwide health-care crisis, then the condition in New Jersey can be described as gravely critical, according to a report in the Washington Post.
The report said the state has an estimated 1.3 million people without health insurance who cannot pay a doctor or a hospital bill. The number of uninsured is expected to grow as more people lose their jobs because of the weak economy.
Six state hospitals have closed in the past 18 months, and half of those remaining are operating in the red.
(NJ Star Ledger / Dov Gordon – YWN)
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7 Responses
A “non-profit hospital always “operates in the red. The deficits are supposed to be made-up by charitable donations.
A “profitable” “non-profit” hospital is an obvious oxymoron.
Medicine has gotten to advanced and to expensive for every person, regardless of ability to pay, to have a right to. There are people out there without a cent to their name who are getting government sponsored heart transplants costing the country close to $1,000,000 in total costs for the procedure (including follow up and medications for life) while people with insurance are stuck dying when their HMO wont cover a certain treatment for time needed. Something must be done.
Not so. There is a huge controversy in taxes these days about profitable activities of non-profits. All hospitals are required to take any emergency case regardless of ability to pay. Non-profit hospitals are also required to make certain allowances for full admission of charitable case patients. However, a non-profit hospital is NOT required to run at a loss, it just has to plow any profits back into its services.
Non-Profit Hospitals that operate in the red, eventually close their doors. Every hospital must make at least a 3% profit just to reinvest that money in building upkeep (new carpet, paint, wallpaper, etc.). They need 5% profit to keep buying new equipment that they need to provide the newest in quality care. If they operate in the red, they can’t replace broken equipment, they can’t buy new equipment, they cannot paint or re-wallpaper, or re-carpet the floors. They basically eventually run out of enough money to pay their staff and have to close or sell.
don’t let illegal get free service
New Jersey will continue losing $ paying for hospitals, medical bills, education, and all the other social services it provides to it’s legal residents, until it wakes up and makes some drastic changes. NJ has one of the highest per capita percentages of illegal immigrants in the USA. It has to pay for their Medicare, doctor bills, schools and education, social services, and everything else, costing (min. estimate) the state over 500 million $ annually, and growing, while not receiving a cent in taxes in return. Just drive down Clifton Ave in Lakewood and you’ll get an idea of how serious this situation is. The amount that people save in the short term by hiring cheap labor pales in comparison to what it really costs them down the road. This is solely from a financial perspective, without even dealing with the lowering of ‘quality of life’ and crime that somehow comes along with them. This is also causing N.J. residents to be paying some of the highest taxes in the country, leaving many residents to continue to try to move elsewhere. Being an EMT and having worked with MONOC paramedics here in NJ, I’ve been told that retirement for many of them and good hard workers is becoming less and less of a reality here in NJ leading them to look elsewhere for better pay, cheaper taxes and cost of living, and a hope for retirement, possibly in Pennsylvania or further South. That just leads to further deterioration in the Medical response expertise and higher costs for treatment afterwards. Additionally, the hard earned money which we pay taxes on seems to be spent frivulously in Trenton, and that would probably be an understatement. The amount of scandals and bribes for polititians, directors of organizations of every sort, and school director or head of school boards is beyond scandalous and outragious, it’s simply unheard of and unprecedented! I don’t expect anything to change overnight, but the more this is talked about and pushed for, I think -and know- it can help us all for the better in many, many ways, and will hopefully provide us with a stronger, safer, and healthier Garden State!! Thank You!
NONE OF YOU GUYS HAVE EXPLAINED WHY THESE HOSPITALS CONTINUE TO CALL THEMSELVES “NON-PROFIT.”
For your information, hospitals originally served the poor, who could not afford a private physician. They were charity institutions.
That’s why they were given tax-exempt status.
If they are now going for profits,they should pay taxes like any other big corporation.