I don’t think the Catholic Church owns hospitals, but I could be wrong. I think the main model you see today is that hospital systems can claim tax exempt (nonprofit) status by aligning to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs). Under the ERDs, the church is able to enforce its religious beliefs in healthcare, such as the ones on trans healthcare. While that is bad, there are parts of the ERD that are tied into providing more community service and ensuring compassionate care for our least privileged communities.
I don’t know how valid this is or what their source is, but I found this saying that in the US alone forty-six states have Catholic-owned hospitals, with 14% of the hospital beds under Catholic ownership, exceeding 40% of the beds in some states. The same source says “15.8 percent of all short-term acute care hospitals in the United States are Catholic-owned or are affiliated with a Catholic system.”
Take that estimate for what it’s worth, they didn’t name their sources, but those figures actually seem a bit conservative, and not at all out of the realm of possibility. Whether it’s outright ownership or just the maintenance and operation of hospitals and other healthcare organizations, the Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of health care services in the world.
I don’t think the Catholic Church owns hospitals, but I could be wrong. I think the main model you see today is that hospital systems can claim tax exempt (nonprofit) status by aligning to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs). Under the ERDs, the church is able to enforce its religious beliefs in healthcare, such as the ones on trans healthcare. While that is bad, there are parts of the ERD that are tied into providing more community service and ensuring compassionate care for our least privileged communities.
I don’t know how valid this is or what their source is, but I found this saying that in the US alone forty-six states have Catholic-owned hospitals, with 14% of the hospital beds under Catholic ownership, exceeding 40% of the beds in some states. The same source says “15.8 percent of all short-term acute care hospitals in the United States are Catholic-owned or are affiliated with a Catholic system.”
Take that estimate for what it’s worth, they didn’t name their sources, but those figures actually seem a bit conservative, and not at all out of the realm of possibility. Whether it’s outright ownership or just the maintenance and operation of hospitals and other healthcare organizations, the Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of health care services in the world.