The Ethics of

For-Profit Hospitals

Abigail Shih
PHIL 291-PO1 Ethics of Health Equity
Ryan Turner
January 14, 2022
Objectives

1. Use the definition of ethics within a medical setting

2. Understand why for-profit hospitals should be
considered “unethical”
3. Analyze counterclaims to this argument
4. Propose follow-up questions for a future discussion
relating to my claim
 Defining Ethics

Good ethics requires there to be:

● Moral awareness: recognition that a situation raises

ethical issues.
● Moral decision making: determining what course of
action is ethically sound.
● Moral intent: identifying which values should take
priority in the decision.
● Moral action: following through on ethical decisions.

(Rhode & Packel, 2009, para. 8)


(For-Profit Enterprise in Health
Care, 1986, pp. 225–226).
(Gasmen, 2020, para. 1)
Businesses vs Hospitals
Practices of For-Profit Businesses:
1. Manipulation and
exploitation of employees
2. Unfair competitive practices
3. Bending the company rules
4. Lack of transparency
5. Unethical treatments to
suppliers and customers
6. Deceptive sales practices
7. Harming the environment
Practices of For-Profit Hospitals
1. Exacerbate the problem of
access to health care
2. Unfair competition against
nonprofit institutions
3. Treat health care as a
commodity rather than a right
4. Include incentives and
organizational controls that
adversely affect the
physician-patient relationship
and lead to a distrust in the
health care system
Claim 1

For-profit hospitals are profit-driven businesses.

● Hospitals are not businesses; physicians, nurses, and

other patient-care staff are not businessmen; patients
are not commodities.
● Likening hospitals to businesses implies that profit is
their main focus. But a hospital’s primary goal should
always be the health and wellbeing of their patients.
Claim 2

For-profit hospitals prioritize profit over the health and

wellbeing of their patients.
● They focus on the wealthiest part of the patient
population, prioritize services that produce higher
revenues, and lower their prices (enough to make it
difficult for non-profits) to invest in more facilities.
● They maximize the amount of paying patients in their
hospitals by refusing patients who either cannot pay or
do not have serious enough conditions.
Claim 3

For-profit hospitals tend to dominate certain areas and drive

out nearby nonprofits.
● Small and nonprofit hospitals are unable to compete with
larger corporations, which try to reduce costs and
maximize their profit.
● This results in fewer people in marginalized communities
having access to affordable health care.
● Counterclaim 3
Counterclaim 1

Profit is an incentive.

● People require incentives to do work; it is unlikely that

they will act on goodwill or altruistically.
Counterclaim 2

For-profits, since they’re run as businesses, are more efficient

and reliable.

● “Small and non-profit hospitals have more administrative

hurdles and bureaucracy” (“Are Non-Profit or For-Profit
Hospitals Better?,” 2022, para. 20).
Counterclaim 3

For-profit hospitals, not nonprofits, dominate poverty-stricken

areas.

● “Nonprofit hospitals on average provide more uncompensated

care than for-profit hospitals do…”
● “Contrary to what we might expect, however, for-profit
hospitals tend to serve lower-income populations, while
nonprofit hospitals tend to be located in communities with less
poverty, higher incomes, and fewer uninsured patients” (“For
Profit vs. Nonprofit Hospital Administration,” 2021, para. 4).
Follow-Up Questions

1. How do for-profit hospitals affect marginalized

communities?
2. Are nonprofit hospitals a better choice than for-profit
hospitals, both ethically and for patient care?
3. What is a better health care system to propose in
America?
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Gasmen, J. C. (2020, October 31). The Dangers of Making Profit. Ethical Issues and Arguments. Retrieved January 14,
2022, from http://dameanusabun.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-dangers-of-making-profit.html
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Retrieved January 14, 2022, from https://healthcaremba.gwu.edu/blog/profit-vs-nonprofit-hospital-administration/
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References