Hospitals as a Public Utility: Or “Work with Us Now or Work for Us Later”

Disestablishing Hospitals

“…The basic argument is that "[b]ecause service, cost, utilization, and quality decisions affect not only providers and users but also the wider social environment, it is necessary to make society privy to those decisions" through public utility regulation. 77 Ultimately, going forward, we need to consider how law and politics structure and shape the role of religion in healthcare. In doing so, we ought to be mindful of the growing power of religious hospitals in the healthcare system and the corresponding threat they pose to our deeply rooted disestablishment values.…”