Question

How should the term charity be defined? What are the arguments against and in favor of counting the provision of health care in and of itself as charity?

Answer 1

The term Charity can be defined as a voluntary generous action of giving of help, typically in the form of money to those who in need. Charity can also be defined as an organization setup to provide help and raise money for those in need. The charity care is also called as community care which is provision of free or discounted hospital based medical services uninsured, low income residents otherwise ineligible for state, federal or employer sponsor health insurance. The concept behind it is that a hospital should not discourage patients who are unable to pay their medical expenses from seeking essential medical services. The charity care is not a comprehensive health insurance. It covers those essential services to diagnose, cure a medical condition that endangers life, cause pain or suffering, results in illness,or causes a physical deformity or malfunction.

Patients whose annual family income is upto and including 200% of the federal poverty level is eligible for full charity care and the patients whose annual family income is between 200% to 300% of federal poverty level is eligible for the partial charity care. The advertizements about the charity care should be made in the emergency department, admission areas, outpatient areas, hospital websites, on patients bills in order to inform them that they may be eligible for charity care.

There are many advantages and disadvantages of this charity in the provision of health care:

Advantages:

• Public recognition and trust: It is known for a good cause and is social acceptable. The people who avail the charity care facilities will have strong trust on the institution and more over it will increase the patient turnover as it will widely recognized among public.
• A lock on assest: The assests of the charity can never be used for private benefit. The hospital with charitable status is obliged to use the assests only for charitable objectives not for other purposes.
• Tax relief: Government have passed laws to extempt various taxes in a charitable institution. Ex: VAT may not be paid on all goods, gift aid relief on donations from individuals.
• Funding: Many agencies and other sources of grant funding are open only to organizations with charitable status.

Disadvantages:

• Restrictions and regulations: During certain political activities and types of trading the charitable institution have to face restrictions. There are certain regulations to which these organizations should comply.
• Unpaid board: The founder of the charity is usually unpaid and shares the control and responsibility equally with all trustees.
• Misuse of charity assests: The members may utilize the charity assests for their personal causes and may try to extract funds for personal use, giving charity reasons.
• Cost increment: Hospitals may set the normal cost of health services very high so that maximum is gained from the patients even after discounts. This raises the cost of health care services for the patients who is not eligible for charity care.