From 538 Significant Digits. This is making me very unhappy, so (1) let’s slam god’s unholy alliance with insurance companies and (2) let’s get the profit motive out of the vital service that is health care:
41 percent of hospital beds
My colleagues Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Anna Maria Barry-Jester have been publishing a series on the role of religion in health care. In their most recent piece, they explore the fact that insurers can funnel patients to Catholic hospitals, which in turn can restrict the reproductive care available to the patient. “Thanks to a wave of mergers and consolidations that has been reshaping the U.S. health care system,” they write, “Catholic hospitals are playing a bigger role in patient care.” This is especially true in the Midwest. In Wisconsin, for example, 41 percent of hospital beds are in Catholic hospitals. [FiveThirtyEight]