So this week in Nonprofit Nation, we learned about the role of healthcare in the nonprofit sector which actually has a large stake in not only the nonprofit sector but also the US economy. While nonprofit hospitals are the largest in the healthcare sector (57%) , I was intrigued to find that the for-profit hospitals as well as government controlled hospitals were on the rise, specifically, I was interested in the “for-profit conversions”. It saddened me that many nonprofit hospitals had to convert or be bought out by for-profit hospitals to be able to operate, pay off debts, or acquire new/ proper technology. The article “Mergers of for-profit, non-profit hospitals” by Jenny Gold spoke to the same issue. In the article, however Ms. Gold paints two different views: first that the for-profit hospitals are helping nonprofit hospitals by giving them the funds they need to operate efficiently and serve the needs of their community and secondly that the for-profit hospitals see an opportunity for more capital gains in the nonprofit sector. Obviously, I would like to think it is the first one but I think most of the time it is a mix of both. Below is an article showing the upside of for-profit conversions as well as an alternative view about the purchase of the Detroit Medical Center.
Alright, for the other readings, I found the article about the publicly owned Green Bay Packers quite interesting. I thought it was, well, cool that the team was a nonprofit sports team where 60% of their proceeds go to charity and most of the employees were volunteers. I found myself wondering and hoping that if the same level of dedication and commitment from members, owners, and fans was exemplified in other nonprofit, how much bigger and influential would the nonprofit sector be?...all I know is, I’m pretty much a Packers fan now.
The article that I was really interested in though was the article about ADD, “ADD Grows Up” by Rebecca Leung. I was really interested in the fact that now more and more adults are being diagnosed with ADD and I was especially interested that with this rise in diagnoses, the drug industry has benefited immensely. As I was reading the article, I was amazed that this disorder has mainly become a way for private companies to make money. One quote from the article said that today there are “also push medications, self-help books, videos, organizational software, personal coaching and even therapeutic swings” furthering the unavoidable and pretty blatant fact that this a ploy from private companies to make money selling people things for problems that they came up with and promoted in the first place. All of this really makes me question the motives of private companies and their place within the health care system. Finally, this brings me back to what I was first speaking about to me the question is, is it really good for the healthcare system and the people it serves to be privately owned by for-profit companies whose motives are, at a basic level, solely to increase their profits?
Bonjour Carly,
ReplyDeleteI like your idea regarding the enthusiasm surrounding the non-profit Green Bay Packers and how that if this energy was dispersed throughout the non-profit sector, the result could be amazing. Why can't people get as excited about solving childhood hunger as they do about a football game? I'm not a big sports fan, but I'd like to think even diehard fans would agree with me. I agree with you that it's crazy how widespread ADD diagnoses are. It's such a cyclical capitalist machine, especially when promoting the additional purchases of books, self-help videos, etc. Someone is making a lot of money off the illness of others.
Au Revoir!
- Alyssa
Carly,
ReplyDeleteI really like your ideas. I went the same way with my blog this week. The real question seems to be: to what extent does profit versus non-profit medical care influence the people it provides for... that is, what does the most good for the people?
The ADD articles seemed to be a theme in many blogs too this week.I feel like ADD is over diagnosed so that care and medical treatment can be administered, in turn, creating a new patient to suck money from. It sounds a little cynical, but generally, that is seemingly the main goal of for-profit hospitals. What will happen when the healthcare system starts to change with more socialized medicine?
Have a good one,
Joey
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCarly,
ReplyDeleteAnother nice post this week.
I too was very interested in the Green Bay Packers article and was surprised and happy to hear that 60% of their profits go to charity. I was also happy to hear that their employees were all volunteers, I like you pondered what would happen if people were able to come together on other projects and participate at a level like this. Would the non-profit sector be larger?
I was especially interested in the ADD article like you, I think that the idea of self diagnosis is just ridiculous. Encouraging people to convince themselves that they have a disease is just another example of how money hungry the world has become. The fact that large pharmaceutical companies are basically promoting hypochondria to turn a profit is just embarrassing. I also thought it was ironic that adults in other countries were not developing these diseases, people can be so gullible.
Have a nice weekend!
Danielle