Massachusetts Hospitals Have Driven Down Health Insurance Premiums

More than anything, Hospital Patient Charges drive US Health Care Costs.  When you view a typical US Hospital bill for patient services, it is easy to understand why US Health Care Costs are so much higher than that in any other major country.

One reason US Hospital bills are so high is that many of the larger Non-Profit Hospitals Systems set their pricing for hospital procedures so that they make a lot of money and retain it tax free, further increasing their already massive treasure chest of Investments in Equity and Debt Securities, which also grow tax free.

Thus, US Hospitals are playing a key role in ultimately determining whether health insurance premiums are fairly priced on the health insurance exchanges.

Massachusetts is clearly one State whose Non-Profit Hospital Organizations are not being greedy in generating high operating profits.

From a review of audited financial statements in the Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA), I found 11 Massachusetts Non-Profit Hospital Organizations with Net Assets above $400 mil.  When I eliminate the Boston Children's Medical Center and Hospital, that leaves me with 10.  These 10 Massachusetts Non-Profit Hospital Organizations generated Total Operating Income of $367 mil in the most recent year, which was a very modest 1.6% of Total Operating Revenues of $22.975 bil.

By Massachusetts Hospitals generating such incredibly modest profits, the cost of Insurance Premiums to Massachusetts residents have been driven down.

Below here are Audited Operating Income, Total Operating Revenues and Operating Income Profit Margin Percentage in the most recent year for each of these 10 Massachusetts Non-Profit Hospital Organizations:

				Operating
		Operating	Total	Income
	City	Income	Operating	(Loss)
	HQs	(Loss)	Revenues	Margin
		mils $s	mils $s	%
Massachusetts Non-Profit Hospital Organizations
Boston Med Ctr & Affiliates	Boston	(27)	2,245	-1.2%
Covenant Health	Lexington	0	581	0.0%
UMass Memorial HealthCare	Worchester	5	2,224	0.2%
Dana-Farber Cancer	Boston	15	993	1.5%
Partners HealthCare	Boston	158	10,346	1.5%
CareGroup HealthCare	Boston	51	2,449	2.1%
Baystate Health	Springfield	47	1,631	2.9%
SouthCoast Health	New Medford	26	790	3.3%
Lahey Clinic Medical Center	Burlington	47	1,036	4.5%
Cape Cod Healthcare	Hyannis	45	680	6.6%
Total all 10		367	22,975	1.6%