Health Care

This week we talked and read about health care. The book’s section on health care was terrible the author just throughout a bunch of numbers at reader, which I quickly skipped over. Class on Monday was interesting. The main questions we discussed in class was: Is going to a Nonprofit Hospital better than going to a for-profit hospital? Personally I don’t think that it really matters. When choosing a hospital I look at the resources they offer and the doctors they employee. And If I had to choose I would choose a for-profit hospital because they are less constrained by money and often times have better facilities and higher caliber doctors.

We also discussed if hospitals should be nonprofit or for-profit? This is a tough question, my first reaction is no they should not be nonprofits because they charge so much for services and they only get 3% of their funding from donations. But then when I look at all the facts I think there should be both. Although nonprofit hospitals still charge an arm and a leg for service they are not allowed to turn away any person for service regardless if they can pay or not. This is an invaluable resource for lower class people. I could not imagine going to the hospital and being told they will not help me because I am poor! Could you?

I posed a question at the beginning of the term to my professor that he was unable to answer so I thought I would ask you guys. Nonprofits are usually in response to the current political times. The United States up until recently had terrible health care. 45 million people said they didn’t have health care in 2008. This is so astonishing. So when I read that health care is the biggest nonprofit sector it was not a big stretch. Given this what will happen to nonprofit health care organizations in light of the new health care reform bill? Will they decrease in number? Will they receive more federal funding?

Unfortunately I was unable to go to class on Wednesday. I really wanted to go because we had a guest speaker. Read my classmates’ blogs to find out what she talked about. I was not able to attend class because I volunteered at NearbyNature, the nonprofit I am involved in. It was so amazing we had an event at Cozmic Pizza in Eugene. Franny the Frog made an appearance. I got to be Franny so I was pretty excited. The children love Franny the Frog! There was this little girl that followed me around the entire time asking me frog questions. I also helped make dragonfly bracelets with the children at the event. We had a pretty good turnout.

Next week we are discussing the arts and administration sector. I am pretty excited because I love the craft center at the UO. Also my dream job is to work be a director of a nonprofit community craft center!

Religion & Social Services

So I forgot to post a blog about chapters 1&2.Sorry. I will recap what I thought was interesting. Non-profits make larger companies and government more responsive(p.41). If you are fallowing along in the book I will be putting page numbers next to key ideas. A good example of this is the UO foundation. 20% of Oregonians give to the university.The more support we get from donors the more state support we will obtain. When I started calling,Oregon gave the UO more money in response to amount of support we got from Oregonians. Of course this was only a piece in a very large puzzle however one piece can make a difference.

Well for chapter 3&4,lets just start out by saying that I hate religion and religious institutions. So reading about religious nonprofits was a little difficult for me to do and pretty much anything said in chapter 3 I made a negative argument against. The first thing that I found really annoying was that religious institutions don't have to file a 501(c)3. This does not seem right. They should be required to because they are just like any other nonprofit, they help people that need help! I think that this makes churches seem like they are better then any other institution. This seems to be a common theme among churches and church goers. It also seems like it could open up a door for corruption since no one holds them accountable. Ok. Enough ranting. Most religious institutions do file a 501(c)3.Our professors said about 95% do however I am still questioning this figure because of the lack of accurate information. I was so excited to finished this chapter. And when I started reading about social service nonprofits, O'Niell could have said anything and I would have agreed with him. Social Services are amazing I could not imagine a place without them. One of my favorite ones in YMCA. For one the gym in the YMCA on Patterson rocks. For two, I have very fond childhood memories about swim classes and day care.Thank you YMCA for providing cheap day care for my parents. YMCA is able to offer reduced rate day care which means it competes with privately owned and operated day care centers. The book noted that small business have often complained about this because they have an unfair advantage. I agree this can occur however childcare nonprofits provide a great alternative for parents that don't have enough money to put their child in a private daycare and insures that just because they are playing less doesn't mean that their child is going to be in danger.

One of the most unique things about Social service nonprofits is the relationship they have with the government. I applaud our government for acknowledging that nonprofits can operate more efficiently and do a better job at providing the services that people need. From here on out I will be referring to social service nonprofits as SS nonprofits for one simple reason I am tired of typing it. SS nonprofits are more connected with the community.Not all communities need the same services. SS nonprofits also have more latitude to try new things and don't have to deal with red tape.

Good news readers!! I got the intership I applied for in New York! I will be doing my research project on the nonprofit I will be working for which is.... I know you are all on the edge of your chairs The Fresh Air Fund. I will be talking about them in this blog. Interesting fact The Fresh Air Fund was started by a church parish. Maybe the Fresh Air Fund can help disolve my hate of religious institutions. Maybe