Not-for-Profit Hospitals unfairly receiving Tax Exemptions
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on June 8th, 2011 4:46 am by HL
Not-for-Profit Hospitals unfairly receiving Tax Exemptions
In this era of tight public funds afflicting virtually every state in the nation, there is one revenue source that has been all but neglected in the public debate: the subsidy of “not for profit” private hospitals by exemption from sales and property taxes being the typical form. This has been reexamined by the remarkable Illinois supreme court decision in the Provena Covenant case: the Court ruled that the Provena hospital group failed to meet the charitable health care provision required to enjoy the property ands sales tax freedom they had enjoyed.
In this era of tight public funds afflicting virtually every state in the nation, there is one revenue source that has been all but neglected in the public debate: the subsidy of “not for profit” private hospitals by exemption from sales and property taxes being the typical form.
This has been reexamined by the remarkable Illinois supreme court decision in the Provena Covenant case: the Court ruled that the Provena hospital group failed to meet the charitable health care provision required to enjoy the property ands sales tax freedom they had enjoyed.
Illinois law requires non profit hospitals to provide charity care (free or reduced care) which eases the financial toll on government- and nothing less- to qualify for property tax exemption. When non profit hospitals fail to provide charity, some poor, uninsured, and underinsured patients find themselves in public hospitals funded by public dollars and stretched beyond capacity. This failure to meet legal requirements results in the loss of tens of billions of tax dollars across the nation at a time of great national need.
Other patients afraid to incur debt they can’t repay, delay their medical treatment, adding to its eventual cost and jeopardizing their health outcomes if not their lives.
In the current recession, budgets at every level of government are strained and people are in peril. The Illinois Supreme Court has decided that non profit hospitals must deploy the public funds they are given to support the public health safety net both the poor and the taxpaying public deserve.
Beyond Banality
Our nation’s usual military policy of overkill, once again seems to reach the point of tragic farce.
The whole point of the Libya military incursion, helping the rebels, long ago ceased to be particularly relevant it would seem.
That was the point, wasn’t it? I cannot remember whether I’m suppose to actually remember.
Yes, Gaddafi is a terrible person, murderous asshole and a flamboyant dresser. His added bellicosity just makes the farce greater than ever [second only to the tragedy].
But one does start to wonder if we’re also batting two out of three?
Nato warplanes repeatedly pounded targets in and around [Gaddafi’s] Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli. Reporters counted at least 27 air strikes by Tuesday afternoon.
Some of the bombs hit a military barracks near the compound, officials said. Others hit the compound itself, Libyan television reported.
The New York Times said what appeared to be bunker-busting bombs had destroyed six or seven buildings, including a reception house and VIP guesthouse where South African President Jacob Zuma was received last week.
Officials told the newspaper that 10 to 15 people had died in the attack, but the figure could not be verified.
But we don’t target specific individuals…as long as it involves bunker busters.
Because then it’s totally moral.