Under Health Law, Hospitals’ Charity Care Has Dropped Significantly
Because more people have coverage under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals are no longer having to provide charity care for a significant part of the population they once helped. Industry leaders say the numbers reflect California's success in implementing the health law and utilizing all the tools it provided. Meanwhile, a different report shows that emergency room visits have risen under the legislation.
Los Angeles Times:
Nonprofit Hospitals Are Being Less Charitable. They Say That Shows Obamacare Is Working
California’s nonprofit hospitals are providing sharply less free and reduced-cost medical care than they did a few years ago, raising questions about the role and obligations of those institutions in the age of Obamacare. About 170 nonprofit general acute-care hospitals provided $651 million of charity care in 2016, down from $985 million in 2011, according to a report due out this week by the California Nurses Assn. (Cosgrove, 6/12)
LA Daily News:
Southern California Emergency Room Use Has Actually Risen After The Passage Of Obamacare. Here’s Why
Homeless people and a growing number of newly insured young adults are flooding Southern California’s emergency departments for non-life threatening illnesses, years after proponents of the Affordable Care Act promised that better health coverage would divert people away from ERs, according state data and public health experts. State data show the opposite has happened: Emergency department visits, including those that resulted in hospital admissions, grew an average 4 percent every year from 2010 to 2016. (Abram and Wheeler, 6/12)
And in other health care coverage news —
The California Health Report:
California Advocates Outraged By Health Proposals Cut From Budget At 11th Hour
Health advocates are decrying the budget deal reached between Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders last week, calling it a missed opportunity to improve health care access for struggling Californians. The $200 billion deal reached Friday between Brown, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins includes $500 million to fight homelessness and $90 million to increase grants to people on welfare. However, it dropped key proposals by Democratic legislators to expand Medi-Cal eligibility to undocumented immigrants under age 26 and expand financial subsidies for people who purchase health insurance on the Covered California exchange. (Boyd-Barrett, 6/12)