Nonprofit hospitals to do more with less: Moodys

Nonprofit hospitals in the United States face a future of rising costs and dwindling funds as the healthcare reform is implemented and the Congress battles over the budget, according to a Moody's Investors ...

In a new Time Magazine cover story, reporter Steven Brill writes a rather lengthy piece about the huge problem with health care costs in the United States.

A pacemaker implant that might cost a patient $36,012 in one hospital, might cost $143,124 down the road at a different hospital –– in the same zip code. 

Moody's has stepped forward with the first warning shot across the bow that: *MOODY'S: MORE MEDIUM TERM ACTIONS MAY BE NEEDED TO SUPPORT Aaa Has contradicted itself (from September) on the debt-ceiling breach; and warns that while the deal 'mitigates' some fiscal drag, it does not remove it. To wit: the IMF piles on:

The politics of immigration reform in the United States are principally about big things and decades long time horizons: human rights, economic competitiveness, nationalism and the viability of the Democratic and Republican voting coalitions. But they’re also about the country’s demographics — and thus its fiscal health.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service said on Wednesday it will hold off on its judgment of whether to cut its sovereign credit rating for the United States until after the 2013 budget process is completed. The re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama removed the uncertainty over who would lead the country but the maintenance of the status quo in a still-divided Congress means the likelihood of a continued tough fight to hammer out a budget. Moody's currently has the United States at its highest rating of Aaa, but with a negative outlook. ...

Insider Monkey submits: According to Milliman Medical Index, healthcare spending is rising at a rate of nearly 8%. In 2010, a typical American family of four spent $18,074 on medical costs, vs. $16,771 in 2009. The upward trend in healthcare costs is not a recent phenomenon. Annual medical costs increased by almost 35% in the last 4 years; from $13382 in 2006 to $18,074 in 2010.

Monica Potts on health care costs: