Robbing Hood: Unmasking Delaware Nonprofit Hospitals

Meet Robbing Hood. Evolving from his origins as someone who helps those in need to the exact opposite – someone who takes from the poor and gives to the rich – Robbing Hood embodies the progression of America’s nonprofit hospitals.

Nonprofit hospitals were organized to serve. Massive tax breaks mean that Delaware’s nonprofit hospitals should provide charity care to the needy, serve as accessible health care providers for low-income patients, and invest in their communities.

But Delaware’s nonprofit hospitals aren’t keeping their side of the deal.

Delaware’s nonprofit hospitals receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for the promise of providing charity care and community benefits. And yet, the state’s hospitals have collectively racked up a “fair share deficit” of $109 million dollars. In other words, nonprofit hospitals in Delaware pocketed a whopping $109 million more in tax breaks than they spent on community benefits and charity care for needy patients.

Hospitals today are big businesses and the largest contributors to US health care costs. Too often, their interests are at odds with Delaware residents’ health and financial security.

Watch CQC’s new video to meet Robbing Hood and see how our nation’s nonprofit hospitals mask what they truly are: big businesses whose priorities do not lie with the people they serve.

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