Health Levy

[KCK]

I think those other are privately owned - and I'm not sure KU Med is turning a profit - they've been implementing a ton of cost cutting measures lately.

Truman is publicly owned, so of course there's going to be public subsidies! The whole thing is publicly subsidized!

KU med was in the same boat as Truman, that is until it became private. Now it is a profiatable hospital. By the way, KU med still serves all of the uninsured in KCK and it still is able to turn a profit. KU med is limited only by their capacity, which is why you are seeing huge expansions of the hospital right now. I dont have figures for profit yet, but their operating revenue increased 13 percent last year to $406 million and kumed served a record number of patients.

[Amanda]

To me it seemed hastily thrown together because there was virtually no mention of it anywhere in the media until 2 weeks before the election.   And the ballot language seemed vague and seemed to be doing nothing more than replacing money that our existing taxes were supposed to be sending to Truman in the first place.   What I read gave me no confidence that the same thing wouldn't happen again.

It has nothing to do with me personally as my property taxes are under $50 a year since I rent and drive a clunker, so my personal tax increase won't even be noticed.    I just prefer that tax increases do something more effective and beneficial than simply covering up losses due to what appears to have been mismanagement of previous taxes.

The ballot language was very specific:
OFFICIAL BALLOT LANGUAGE
SPECIAL ELECTION
CITY OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

QUESTION 1

SHALL THE FOLLOWING BE APPROVED?

Shall the City of Kansas City, Missouri be authorized to temporarily increase the tax levy for a period of nine years for ambulance services, emergency medical services, hospital and public health purposes by increasing the existing tax levy by 22 cents per $100.00 assessed valuation on real and tangible personal property in the City of Kansas City, Missouri, based upon the assessed valuations, with the additional revenues to be distributed as follows: the revenue derived from 3 1⁄2 cents of the levy to ambulance services, the revenue derived from 3 1⁄2 cents of the levy from non-for-profit neighborhood health centers, and the revenue derived from 15 cents of the levy to Truman Medical Center?

That's why we went with the "lock-in" language...The 22 cent increase can only go to those organizations mentioned in the ballot language. The previous levy dollars we not mis-managed, but the city did incorporate the funding for the health department out of the Healthcare Safety Net budget. That considered, along with all the massive budget cuts at the federal and state level, left no other option but to go for the levy increase.

[tat2kc]

One reason Childen's Mercy may be profitable is the huge amount of fundraising they do, and the increasing size of their endowment. They also do a lot of research and grant writing. 

[KCMax]

Where are you getting these profit ideas from? Do you have a source on the profitability of KUMed and Children's Mercy and lack of profitability by Truman Med?

[troostwood]

Children's Mercy raises more through fundraising because it has an easier story to sell to big donors: help sick, poor kids.

Truman Medical Center, competing for the same charitable dollars, has to sell this: help sick, poor, adults who don't have health insurance.

My source on that is a person involved in the nonprofit raising business that works for area hospitals.

The reasons Truman cannot be KU Medical Center are complex, but here are some major factors:
- Truman serves a relatively larger, and relatively poorer, population than KU Med.

- When you have a lot of poor people going to a hospital, its harder for the hospital to attract wealthier patients (with insurance) who don't want to rub shoulders with poor folks. Also, hospitals like Truman are sterotyped as providing inferior services, which may or may not be true. Hospitals make money off people with insurance.

- KU MEd has a strong history of having a national reputation as being a top-tier hospital in many respects.  Truman doesn't have that luxury.

My source on that is a doctor who lives on my block and a couple of nurses I know.


The best source, on all of this, would be a hospital administrator.  I don't know any.

[knucklehead]

Children's mercy definately receives a subsidy from the city of Kansas city. I read that at some point during the health levy debate.

KU med has a lot of advantages over Truman including association with the primary medical school in Kansas (UMKC is second fiddle to Columbia in Missouri), location (although hospital hill is improving rapidly with the residential development east of troost), and KCMO's larger indigent base.

Also, while KU may have gone private in the past 10 or 15 years, its resource base was built up while under state control. It has more departments, specialists, etc, as a legacy of its prior state funding.