Nonprofit hospitals are being less charitable. They say that shows Obamacare is working
California's nonprofit hospitals are providing sharply less free and reduced-cost medical care than they did a few years ago, raising questions about the role and obligations of those institutions in the age of Obamacare.
About 170 nonprofit general acute hospitals provided $651 million of charity care in 2016, down from $985 million in 2011, according to a report issued by the California Nurses Assn. Those hospitals reported net income of more than $3 billion in both 2011 and 2016, the report shows.
Hospital industry leaders say charity care has declined because the Affordable Care Act - which became law in 2010 but took full effect in 2014 - has provided millions of Californians with free and reduced-cost coverage through Medicaid expansion and the Covered California marketplace. Indeed, one
