Catholic hospitals have merged with and purchased nonsectarian hospitals around the U.S., becoming leading players in the nation’s health care industry. The standards of medical care put forth in the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services differ from those generally recognized in other medical settings, including the restriction of choices about abortion and contraception and reduced access to evidence-based reproductive health services as a whole. This issue brief explains six commonly held misconceptions about the breadth and depth of Catholic hospital care in the U.S.
File
Over the past decade, Catholic hospitals have merged with and purchased nonsectarian hospitals around the United States, becoming leading players in the nation’s health care industry. Catholic hospitals receive billions of taxpayer dollars each year and have a combined gross patient revenue of $213.7 billion. The standards of medical care put forth in the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services not only restrict choices about abortion and contraception, but reduce access to evidence-based reproductive health services as a whole. This brief explains how.