*With Charity for All*

I am a fan of this book.  The author is Ken Stern and the subtitle is Why Charities are Failing and a Better Way to Give, with emphasis on the former I would say.  Here is one excerpt:

The CBO study and other reporting on the practices of charitable hospitals did in fact spur reforms efforts, including a proposal in Congress to require a minimum uncompensated care rate of 5 percent in return for tax-exempt status.  All the major proposals, however, have been beaten back, with reform advocates having to settle for greater public reporting obligations for charitable hospitals on the theory that greater transparency would ratchet up pressure for change.  It hasn’t worked.  A 2012 nationwide study found continuing low levels of uncompensated care, only 1.51 percent on average, a number less than half the profit margins for the same group of hospitals.