{"id":50,"date":"2026-05-20T23:07:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=50"},"modified":"2026-05-20T23:07:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:07:31","slug":"heres-why-your-hospital-bills-are-so-big-and-why-congress-doesnt-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=50","title":{"rendered":"Here’s Why Your Hospital Bills Are So Big \u2014 And Why Congress Doesn’t Care"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How\u2019s this for bipartisanship? Groups on both the left and the right can agree on not just a major policy problem but potential solutions for it.<\/p>\n

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Yet corporate influence and lobbying have stymied action on reform for far too long. Welcome to America\u2019s dysfunctional health care system \u2014 brought to you in part by Big Hospitals.<\/p>\n

High Prices, Monopoly Power<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Recently, the left-leaning advocacy group Families USA released an of hospital pricing data, with a particular focus on big corporate chains. For 15 large systems, the hospitals charged commercial insurance an average of 282 percent of Medicare rates, while earning an average of $22.1 million in net income per hospital.<\/p>\n

Breaking down the data by various metrics (rural versus urban, etc.), the prime differentiator became apparent. Independent hospitals charged an average of 221 percent of Medicare rates, while earning an average of $3 million per hospital per year. By contrast, hospitals that comprised part of a larger system charged an average of 277 percent of Medicare rates, while earning an average of $27.7 million in net earnings annually \u2014 more than nine times the earnings of independent facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The analysis comes with caveats, of course. Medicare\u2019s bureaucratic-driven reimbursement formulae don\u2019t necessarily represent the \u201cright\u201d price for a given good or service. And independent hospitals may have fewer beds than those in larger systems, which might explain some of the income disparity. But the trend appears clear: Big Hospitals both charge and rake in Big Bucks.<\/p>\n

Why do these system-affiliated hospitals charge so much? In many ways, because they can. In practically every state, the top five hospital systems control at least half of the market. The more market clout these large systems hold, the more they can engage in anticompetitive, take-it-or-leave-it tactics with insurers, which ultimately stick patients with the (higher) bill.<\/p>\n

Bipartisan Solutions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Surprisingly, I found myself in violent agreement with Families USA not just on the problem but on many policy solutions to tame Big Hospitals. The paper\u2019s executive summary mentioned five proposals:<\/p>\n

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