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Hospitals that make profits should pay taxes

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Re: Hospitals that make profits should pay taxes

#21

Post by maxerickson »

throwaway918274 wrote: post #12

1. I go into hospital and come out with 90k bill - I have insurance and I pay my copay of $130. 2. Insurance says "nah, we'll give you 18k" 3. Hospital goes "ok". 4. Hospital writes off as a 72k loss, which essentialy is a "tax deduction". This is good for me, but such a perverse incentive for the hospital.

Wouldn't they reasonably be limited to writing off actual expenses rather than the made up price?

It seems hard to search on, but it doesn't really look like there are tax benefits from contractual adjustments.

Re: Hospitals that make profits should pay taxes

#22

Post by m3kw9 »

throwaway918274 wrote: post #12

1. I go into hospital and come out with 90k bill - I have insurance and I pay my copay of $130. 2. Insurance says "nah, we'll give you 18k" 3. Hospital goes "ok". 4. Hospital writes off as a 72k loss, which essentialy is a "tax deduction". This is good for me, but such a perverse incentive for the hospital.

You can’t do that because then every contractor can pay zero tax if they charge 100k an hour but have them pay 100$, and you got 99k loss.

Re: Hospitals that make profits should pay taxes

#24

Post by missedthecue »

throwaway918274 wrote: post #12

1. I go into hospital and come out with 90k bill - I have insurance and I pay my copay of $130. 2. Insurance says "nah, we'll give you 18k" 3. Hospital goes "ok". 4. Hospital writes off as a 72k loss, which essentialy is a "tax deduction". This is good for me, but such a perverse incentive for the hospital.

99% sure that's now how accounting works. A loss is when expenses are more than revenue, not when you earn less than you wanted to.

Roofing and construction contractors would be all over this if they could avoid taxes simply by negotiating down an invoice.

Re: Hospitals that make profits should pay taxes

#25

Post by wccrawford »

rjzzleep wrote: post #15
nullindividual wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's worse is they enforce their religious worldview at these hospitals, denying legal medical treatments based off of the largest human hoax and political control mechanism ever invented by man.

In Germany some of the best hospitals are Christian (catholic I believe, but may be wrong). The US is a really weird place.

There's a bunch of local hospitals that are all run by a religion, but so far as I know, it doesn't dictate what they will and won't do for patients. So while I'm sure there are some religious hospitals that deny treatment, it's not all of them.

The US is a really, really big place. Our states are the size of many countries. I'm not surprised that there's incredibly diverse sets of circumstances here.

Re: Hospitals that make profits should pay taxes

#26

Post by Almondsetat »

gumby wrote: post #16

The hike idea of a “nonprofit” is dumb and ripe with abuse. Nonprofits still have to pay payroll, the phone bill etc. Why have someone deciding that they don’t have to pay taxes? They can certainly just show a loss for year after year.

Because a non profit cannot keep the profits (duh), thus all the extra money has to go back into the economy. Since every purchase has VAT they are effectively already paying a tax on their profits and shouldn't be further taxed

Re: Hospitals that make profits should pay taxes

#27

Post by Ekaros »

throwaway918274 wrote: post #12

1. I go into hospital and come out with 90k bill - I have insurance and I pay my copay of $130. 2. Insurance says "nah, we'll give you 18k" 3. Hospital goes "ok". 4. Hospital writes off as a 72k loss, which essentialy is a "tax deduction". This is good for me, but such a perverse incentive for the hospital.

It is weird that in this case insurance company is not taxed on the 72k "profit" they made...

Re: Hospitals that make profits should pay taxes

#29

Post by leipert »

rjzzleep wrote: post #15
nullindividual wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's worse is they enforce their religious worldview at these hospitals, denying legal medical treatments based off of the largest human hoax and political control mechanism ever invented by man.

In Germany some of the best hospitals are Christian (catholic I believe, but may be wrong). The US is a really weird place.

Ha. But it is weird as well in Germany, because the churches are not bound to the normal Labour law and can for example discriminate against gay folks without recourse. Which is even more ridiculous given that most of the funds for the catholic/protestant schools and hospitals are payed by the tax payer/health insurances.

Re: Hospitals that make profits should pay taxes

#30

Post by nradov »

jama211 wrote: post #4

Wait… they don’t already? What is even going on over there?

For-profit hospitals that actually turn profits do pay income taxes. The concern is with non-profit hospitals. They don't distribute profits to shareholders. But some do pay high salaries to employees or have large and growing endowment funds. The author is arguing that threatening to tax some of those funds would incentivize non-profit hospitals to lower prices and give out more charity care. This isn't necessarily a bad idea but I am skeptical whether this would actually achieve results.
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