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Episode 022: Are Hospitals Really Non-Profits? A Discussion with Dr. Craig Wax

My guest, Dr. Craig Wax, is a family physician who writes extensively about health care and says that allowing these massive hospital systems to have tax exempt status is an unfair advantage they have at the cost of private practice physicians and other health care centers. He contends that not only does this property tax exempt status provide a huge economic advantage but it also places a larger tax burden on the citizens in those cities to provide all the services that hospitals require. He provides the example of a city now required to purchase a new $2 million fire truck designed to put out fires in high rises because of the construction of a new hospital that won't be paying any property taxes.

As if speaking out about hospitals wasn't enough, Dr. Wax recently joined a class action lawsuit to take on his national medical society, the AOA (American Osteopathic Association) to uncouple board certification from being a member of the private organization. Although the case was not brought to trial it was settled out of court and he and the other plaintiffs were successful in ending the forced membership (~$800 annually) to the AOA just in order for DOs in the United States to practice medicine. This victory has the potential to blaze a path for allopathic physicians (MDs) to do the same for their certification process. This is in fact happening through the work of the Practicing Physicians of America who are preparing to launch a class action suit which we discussed in episode 009 and 020. Dr. Craig Wax is a family physician, writer, and radio host of the Your Health Matters radio show. He has written extensively on health care policy and history. He successfully sued the AOA freeing osteopathic physicians from joining the AOA in order to be credentialed.