Calif. Union Backs Charity-Care Minimum for Nonprofit Hospitals
March 12, 2012 | Read Time: 1 minute
A union that represents California health-care workers is campaigning for a ballot initiative that would require the state’s nonprofit hospitals to spend at least 5 percent of their patient revenue on providing free care for the poor, the Los Angeles Times writes.
The referendum is one of two aimed at hospitals for which the Service Employees International Union is gathering signatures and hopes to place on the November ballot. The other would prohibit private hospitals from charging patients more than 25 percent of their actual expenditure for providing care.
The measures would exempt California’s public hospitals as well as some private health networks, including major providers that employ members of the union.
Service Employees International says that if enacted, the proposals would cut health-care costs and expand care and that the exempted groups have already made progress in these areas. Critics contend that the union is trying to reward employers with which it works and punish those it has been unsuccessful in organizing.
