Sewell Opening Statement at Oversight Subcommittee Hearing on Tax-Exempt Hospitals

(As prepared for delivery)

Thank you, Chairman Schweikert, for holding today’s hearing. Thank you to all the witnesses for your attendance. 

Our nation’s nonprofit hospitals are the cornerstone of our healthcare system—providing vital care to millions of Americans. These hospitals deliver unmatched benefits to our communities—keeping Americans healthy, bearing the brunt of care to those in need, and serving as major employers. Collectively, they deliver more in community benefits and charity care to their communities than the foregone revenue from their federal tax exemption.

Yet, nonprofit hospitals and our healthcare system are under attack by the Republicans. They are holding this hearing today to distract from the damage they are causing to our economy and the health care system.  Unemployment is on the rise, costs at the grocery store are surging, and health care premiums are set to skyrocket, all thanks to this Administration.  

In their Big, Ugly bill, Republicans made a deliberate choice to strip more than 10 million Americans of their health care and hit countless more with increased costs and red tape while giving tax cuts to billionaires. Their refusal to extend the enhanced tax credits that help working Americans purchase health coverage means another 4.2 million will become uninsured and tens of millions will see the largest premium hike in 15 years. Republicans enacted $1.5 trillion in health care cuts—which are falling on the backs of Americans—hospitals, providers, and patients. All to pay for billionaire tax cuts. 

In Alabama, 375,000 people purchasing their own health insurance receive tax credits to help afford coverage. If billionaires could get tax cuts, then why not working Americans? If Republicans continue refusing to extend these health tax credits, 100,000 more Alabamians will lose their health insurance. A 60-year-old couple in my district earning just over $80,000 will see their costs skyrocket more than 300 percent (about $20,000) and would have to spend 32 percent of their income on health insurance premiums alone. Does that sound affordable to anyone in this room?

Republicans have taken a hatchet to the health system, and they are trying to hide from their record and distract the American public from the damage their policies are already inflicting. 

Nonprofit hospitals have a long history of operating at a low financial margin—in fact, the ordinary nonprofit hospital typically operates at a negative operating margin in most years. They also are more likely than for-profit or government hospitals to offer every type of medical service—and nonprofit hospitals are considerably more likely to provide poorly reimbursed, and thus unprofitable, services. These services are disproportionately needed by patients who are uninsured or have inadequate insurance—a group of Americans that is growing due to Republican policies.

The bottom line is that without nonprofit hospitals, we will continue to see increased rates of chronic disease, decreased access to emergency care, and an increase in premature deaths. With current attacks on hospital stability through Medicaid cuts and other failures of this Committee to protect access to care, we are endangering the lives of all Americans. We must protect our hospitals to ensure access to care and improve the quality of life for all of our constituents. 

I am looking forward to hearing today’s testimonies, but I truly hope we can all come to a consensus that supports our health care systems instead of attacking them. 

I yield back. 

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