Hospitals Provide Millions of Dollars of Free Care to Needy

An article published by Mary Ann Roser entitled, “ Hospitals Provide Millions of Dollars of Free Care to Needy, but Taxpayers, Others Share Burden,” was posted Sunday, May 1 by Austin-Statesman Staff.  Roser discussed how a particular patient, who had been laid off, leaving him without insurance, had later developed acute myeloblastic leukemia, a fast-moving cancer of the blood and bone marrow.  After hospitalization, his bill reached to approximately 52,000 dollars, which he states is something he could never repay.  This patient in turn qualified for St. David’s Charity Care, a program provided for underinsured patients and uninsured patients.  Roser also noted that there are thousands of patients that receive charity care each year, in which the hospital, insured patients and taxpayers end up paying for.  In 2009, 29.7 million dollars was contributed by Travis County taxpayers, 61.3 million by the federal government, and other aid programs brought in 30.3 million dollars.  According to Mark Clayton, senior vice president at St. David's, hospitals are currently reimbursed sixty percent of what it costs to provide care to Texas Medicaid patients.

As currently being an employee of Seton Medical Center (also a charity hospital), I have indeed witnessed many charity situations within the facility.  It’s very surprising to see the amount of patients on a daily basis in dire need of financial assistance for their medical costs.  I’m most definitely pleased to see that a vast among of funding for these charity cases is coming from the federal government but taxpayers still are paying nearly half that amount.  Even though the money taken from taxpayers is to save the lives of  the sick, I still see it as somewhat frustrating.  This high amount of charity spending has once led to lay offs within the network, reducing of hours to employees and/or reducing the percentage of any yearly raises that are given.  It  just seems to me that the federal government should come up with a better funding strategy instead of tacking on a thirty million dollar tab to taxpayers.