My local hospital is having debt problems:
The bulk of Coffee’s debt, around $120 million, comes from the 1999 purchase of three hospitals: Shoals, Russellville and Humana hospitals. Russellville has since been sold, and Humana has become ECM East.
The debt is insured by MBIA, and so far, Coffee has met its bond payments, but there is a question about its ability to continue to do so with the rising cost of health care, the increased number of uninsured patients and falling reimbursements from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Get that? Costs are out of control. Merging local hospitals was supposed to cut costs, but the rapid rate of growth in the health care sector has made all of medicine more expensive. People who wait until they need an ER, or wind up in the ER uninsured, are a socialized cost of business. Government benefit programs are far more efficient than private plans, but still face the same rapid growth in costs. Private coverage charges ever-larger premiums to meet the same rising costs.
