[PEN-L:9525] Re: Re: Re: Re: Shades of Summers

[frank@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Ellen Frank)]

Doug writes:
>
>
>When I interviewed Steffie Woolhandler, one of the authors of that
>study (which appeared originally in the Journal of the American
>Medical Association), she said that nonprofit HMOs are increasingly
>behaving like for-profit ones.

I interviewed David Himmelstein a couple of years ago for a D&S piece and
he also noted that the non-profits are being forced to merge/purge and
otherwise behave exactly as for-profits, simply to avoid being
merged/purged
by corporate predators.  Boston, where I live, is still almost entirely
not-for-profit, but it is increasingly corporate.
I asked Himmelstein, by the way, what difference it made for consumers
whether Harvard or HCA owned their hospital, given the history of
arrogant elitism and money-grubbing "cash-endectomies" as someone
put it, in the non-profit sector.  His response was that non-profits, to
the extent that they represent the local elites, have an interest in
local quality of life, at least of the elites.  So they are less likely to
close down facilties, to want state-of-the-art surgical suites, even
if these aren't profitable.
A very interesting guy.

				Ellen



























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