Whatever the other merits of this proposal, funneling another ~$30B to hospitals is the antithesis of "targeted relief."

A dozen hospital chains just presented at #JPM21, two weeks ago.

General theme: Financially speaking, hospitals are doing quite well. 1/n

We have, for example, Community Health Systems, which operates 89 hospitals in 16 states, many of them in smaller towns / metro areas.

Through the pandemic, CHS's EBITDA margin never even fell into single digits, and profitability actually *increased* in 2020.
Meanwhile, Lifepoint Health (84 hospitals, 30 states) also saw profits increase in 2020, while its cash-to-debt ratio fell. Pretty solid year.
ProMedica Health (non-profit, 13 Midwestern hospitals) actually saw profits increase even in *the first half of 2020,* when hospitals were supposedly facing catastrophe.

They finished the year with ~$440M of EBITDA, and $2.3B of cash on hand.
Baylor Scott & White (52 hospitals) saw its profit margin *more than double* during the pandemic year, and ended September with $7.8 billion of cash and portfolio investments.

That's about $600M more than they had pre-pandemic.
Mass General Brigham's cash pile is now over $11 billion, which is roughly twice what Congress proposes to allocate to all rural hospitals in this proposal.

That number is *up* by ~$2B from the start of the pandemic, which is quite something.
Head down the Atlantic coast to NY, and we find that (non-profit) Northwell Health's EBITDA margin did dip a bit in 2020, but not dramatically.

And, like every other chain in this thread, Northwell ended up with a healthier balance sheet than at the beginning of the crisis.
If we turn back to the Midwest, we might look to OhioHealth, a highly profitable "not-for-profit" with 12 hospitals.

Not clear why they need $6.2 billion of cash on hand (4x their total debt), but they have it, which must be nice.
While we're in the neighborhood, we may want to look north, toward Michigan, home to Henry Ford (5 hospitals) and Spectrum Health (14 hospitals).

And...yup! Cash upon cash. Spectrum's cash pile increased by a quarter (~$1B) in the year to September.

Why?
We could also take a look around Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, perhaps through the lens of SSM Health's 23 hospitals in those states.

SSM enjoyed revenue growth in 2020, and currently sits on a tidy pile of $4.4 billion.
Let's keep heading west. We'll make a stop in Utah, where local giant Intermountain is giving Mass General a run for its money. As a...portfolio manager.

Another hospital chain, with $11B of cash on hand, and a nice healthy profit margin.
And now, to the Pacific Coast. Providence is a good example - 51 hospitals from California to Alaska, along with a few facilities in MT, NM and TX.

EBITDA margins were down a smidge, but cash was up by $2B to an eye-popping $14.5B.

Is that a lot? It seems like a lot.
We can keep going, though I am not sure we need to.

There's Tenet, with its 40% EBITDA margin on surgical facilities. Or UHS, where free cash flow more than doubled in 2020...

But, at this point, I think the picture is clear. Congress is wasting your money. /n

More from Society

Like most movements, I have learned that the definition of feminism has expanded to include simply treating women like human beings.

(A thread for whoever feels like reading)


I have observed feminists on Twitter advocating for rape victims to be heard, rapists to be held accountable, for people to address the misogyny that is deeply rooted in our culture, and for women to be treated with respect.

To me, very easy things to get behind.

And the amount of pushback they receive for those very basic requests is appalling. I see men trip over themselves to defend rape and rapists and misogyny every chance they get. Some accounts are completely dedicated to harassing women on this site. It’s unhealthy.

Furthermore, I have observed how dedicated these misogynists are by how they treat other men that do not immediately side with them. There is an entire lexicon they have created for men who do not openly treat women with disrespect.

Ex: simp, cuck, white knight, beta

All examples of terms they use to demean a man who respects women.

To paraphrase what a wise man on this app said:

Some men hate women so much, they hate men who don’t hate women

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I wish this existed when I learned to code! Congrats on $250!!
This is a pretty valiant attempt to defend the "Feminist Glaciology" article, which says conventional wisdom is wrong, and this is a solid piece of scholarship. I'll beg to differ, because I think Jeffery, here, is confusing scholarship with "saying things that seem right".


The article is, at heart, deeply weird, even essentialist. Here, for example, is the claim that proposing climate engineering is a "man" thing. Also a "man" thing: attempting to get distance from a topic, approaching it in a disinterested fashion.


Also a "man" thing—physical courage. (I guess, not quite: physical courage "co-constitutes" masculinist glaciology along with nationalism and colonialism.)


There's criticism of a New York Times article that talks about glaciology adventures, which makes a similar point.


At the heart of this chunk is the claim that glaciology excludes women because of a narrative of scientific objectivity and physical adventure. This is a strong claim! It's not enough to say, hey, sure, sounds good. Is it true?