Many of Kentucky’s hospitals are nonprofit organizations. These institutions receive significant tax breaks at the federal, state and local levels with the expectation that they will operate like charities, providing free and reduced-price health care to those in need and benefiting their communities in the process. Regrettably, many nonprofit hospitals in Kentucky and across the nation adopt practices that prioritize profits over patients, leaving lots of Kentuckians burdened with excessive medical bills and financially crippling medical debt.
A prime example of this issue is the astounding “fair share deficit” of $349 million among Kentucky’s nonprofit hospitals. This figure signifies that the tax breaks these hospitals received exceeded their spending on community benefits and charity care for low-income patients by a staggering $349 million. According to the Lown Hospital Index, that’s enough to wipe out the net losses of all rural hospitals in the state more than three times over.