For profits: a look at the bottom line

This paper examines the expansion of for-profit health care organizations, focusing on hospitals. It argues that much of the support of for-profits derives from American market ideology and the assumption that the search for profits leads to efficiency in production. In the health field, there is no evidence, however, that such gains in efficiency exist or that, if they do, they are shared with patients in the form of lower costs of care or with employees in the form of higher wages. The paper presents a number of reasons for concluding that for-profits would not serve the needs of patients, care deliverers, local communities, or the health care system. Potential efficiency gains, even if realized, would be far outweighed by the damage that for-profits would cause.