Some argue that privatization is a good principles because private companies are more efficient and ultimately better than government-run operations. That’s surely true of many industries, but it doesn’t appear to be true of hospitals. According to a recent study, just the opposite is the case.

CNN reports that private, for-profit hospitals are less efficient and lead to more deaths than non-profit and public hospitals:

Dr. P.J. Devereaux and colleagues at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, reviewed medical studies on hospital care in the United States, covering 350,000 patients and hundreds of hospitals. ... Devereaux and colleagues earlier showed that for-profit hospitals had higher death rates. "The reality is that for-profits face significant economic challenges. The first is they have to generate revenues that will satisfy shareholders," Devereaux said. s"Second, they have high executive bonuses. Thirdly, they are very top-heavy and have high administrative costs. Also, they have to pay taxes. That is a lot of extra money that they have to come up with," Devereaux added.

"Instead of finding new efficiencies, folks were cutting corners in quality health care, and also people were having to pay more for care." In a commentary published in the journal, Dr. Steffie Woolhandler and Dr. David Himmelstein of Harvard Medical School commented that 13 percent of all U.S. hospitals are for-profit, and said converting them to nonprofit status could have saved $6 billion of the $37 billion spent on care at investor-owned hospitals in 2001. ... "Investor-owned hospitals charge outrageous prices for inferior care," Woolhandler said in a statement. "The for-profits skimp on nurses, but spend lavishly on their executives and paper-pushers."

If this is true of hospitals, what about health insurance? Is it possible that the same factors which cause private, for-profit hospitals to be less efficient and more dangerous also cause private, for-profit health insurance to be less efficient and lead to more deaths? Is it possible that non-profit and public health insurance might actually be more efficient and safer for people?

Yes, it is possible, and this study offers a sound reason to take the possibility very, very seriously. This study should give any rational person a reason to think twice before getting treated at a private, for-profit hospital and it should give any rational person a reason to think twice about the wisdom of putting health insurance in the same hands.

Read More:

• Guide to Ethics and Morality
• News About Ethics
• Bioethics