Non-Profit Hospitals, Tax Exemptions and Access for the Uninsured

Abstract:     
These comments approach the topic of tax exemption for non-profit hospitals from the perspective of the 46 plus million Americans who have no health insurance and the significant additional number who are underinsured. In essence, persons who are underinsured have some form of health coverage but they remain at serious risk for significant out-of-pocket expenditures when they become sick. From this perspective, the key question is what role, if any, do the non-profit health care sector and, more particularly, non-profit hospitals have to play in addressing the vexing problems posed by the large number of uninsured and underinsured. These problems tend to be discussed primarily, although not exclusively, as problems of access.

To put the question in specific terms: Is tax exemption for non-profit hospitals a tool that could be used effectively to address, or at least to help to address, these problems? Should we try to fashion tax exemption standards for non-profit hospitals into a tool for responding to some of the challenges posed by the growing number of uninsured in our society?

Keywords: non-profit health care, non-profit hospital, tax exemption, standards, uninsured, underinsured, responsibility

Accepted Paper Series