[antisthenes]

> Most hospitals are already losing money or close to losing money. Taking away profit motive from them e.g. by subsidizing operation would only increase cost of care, because the incentive to run lean/efficiently goes away.

This comes up in every thread about healthcare and it's just plain wrong/backwards.

The reason they appear to be losing money or close to losing money is by design, because of the incentive to be inefficient. It's a way to balloon the "costs" in their accounting and demonstrate to the outside observers that they are "oh so poor" and need help, whereas in reality, they charge exorbitant amounts for procedures and then mark it off as "losses" when consumers can't pay.

[adam_arthur]

If you look at Hospital REITs, the majority of the systems have low rent coverage on a cash flow basis. Look at the distribution yields/low multiples applied to hospital real estate... many are priced with high tenant default/bankruptcy risk.

e.g. MPW

Hospitals are not the same as Medical Office, which tend to be more profitable. Where are the facts to corroborate your statement?