Detroit Medical Center to be sold to for-profit hospital chain

[IndianaGreen]

Detroit Medical Center to be sold to for-profit hospital chain

By Shannon Jones
20 March 2010

The Detroit Medical Center, the largest hospital system in Michigan and the state’s largest provider of health care to the uninsured, will be sold to for-profit Vanguard Health Systems for $417 million in a deal announced March 19.

The sale follows months of negotiations between DMC executives, Detroit Mayor Bing, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano and Vanguard. As part of the agreement the city of Detroit and county and state authorities are pledging to create a “renaissance zone” that will free Vanguard from virtually all taxes.

The sale of DMC is part of a national drive to subordinate every aspect of health care to the demands of private profit. It will inevitably mean that the health care safety net, already severely strained by a huge increase in the number of uninsured, will be further eroded.

The move is also part of Bing’s campaign to privatize city services and downsize and depopulate broad sections of the city. Detroit Medical Center has long served as a place of last resort for those without medical insurance. Nonprofit hospitals are required to provide a certain minimum of uncompensated care and other benefits to the local communities they serve to maintain tax-exempt status.

Nashville, Tennessee-based Vanguard has purchased 15 hospitals over the past 10 years in four states, turning them into for-profit operations.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/dmcv-m20.shtml