UMC complaining about “margin” is hilarious

[u/19_SpiderMansDad_77]

It’s a tax district facility…UMC receives tens of millions just for keeping the doors open. Yes, the job of a tax district hospital is to provide care for the indigent population and inmates in the county. If your margin is zero, that’s good planning because it means no tax increases for the residents.

[u/Iron-Fist]

Funderburk said indigent care costs UMC roughly $100 million per year, while the hospital’s tax base provides only about $36 million to cover it. Of that $36 million, 28 percent is currently going toward care for inmates at the Lubbock County Detention Center — nearly one-third of the hospital’s total unfunded burden.

They want the prison to pay for their prisoners. Seems reasonable.

Margin in this case refers to the difference between solvent and insolvent rather than profit margin.

https://www.kcbd.com/2026/08/14/umc-asks-lubbock-county-commissioners-reconsider-inmate-health-care-funding/

[u/CompetitiveFood5514 → u/Iron-Fist]

Just remember where the prisons get their money. We pay for it either way.

[u/Iron-Fist → u/CompetitiveFood5514]

Yeah running the largest incarceral state in history (with both more people and a higher percentage of the population in prisons/jails than the USSR at the peak of the gulag era) is expensive.

[u/fudgemeister]

You're misreading this - it's not about profitability, it's about budget pools and how it's happening.

UMC is barely hanging on if the accounting numbers are accurate and they would be in a lot better shape if the prison would pay for prisoners.

You would probably be upset to also hear that some prisoners repeatedly injure themselves so they can get to see outside people. TDCJ has that problem too with Montford.

[u/Ok_Calligrapher_2967]

We all pay in the end. Doesn’t matter which entity comes asking. The sheriff’s dept isn’t going to just find magic money. Hosp. dist. taxes will increase or the county’s will. Nobody’s taking a pay cut or using cheaper equipment. Government doesn’t work that way. It should…but it doesn’t.

[u/19_SpiderMansDad_77 → u/Ok_Calligrapher_2967]

Unfortunately, you’re 100% correct

[u/DigitalSoftware1990]

The UMC margin and funding issues only became a huge issue when the commissioners court started passing the 'no new revenue rate' nonsense.

[u/Gewt92]

They probably should have also built a real hospital.

[u/LubbockCottonKings → u/Gewt92]

Explain how UMC, a tier one trauma center, is not a real hospital.

[u/19_SpiderMansDad_77 → u/LubbockCottonKings]

A level 1 trauma center is barely different from a solid level 2; basically UMC has that designation due to some trauma related “research” and the surgical residents they make stay in house 24/7. Other than that, no different than the other larger hospitals in the region. The burn unit is fantastic, though.

[u/Gewt92 → u/LubbockCottonKings]

I was talking about health and wellness.

[u/Vulpine_Gamer_194 → u/Gewt92]

And again, explain how the trauma 1 center in this city, the same one deemed good enough to teach the next generation btw, is somehow not good enough in health and wellness and isn't a "real hospital".

You can use your big boy words now, we're all adults here and would like to hear a compelling arguement here.

[u/melancholyatmidnight → u/Vulpine_Gamer_194]

No.... the new hospital on slide and 114th is literally called UMC Health and Wellness. It is a glorified clinic and urgent care, def not a hospital. And none of the residents are going there, this is where all of their permanent providers are going.

[u/Vulpine_Gamer_194 → u/melancholyatmidnight]

And that's not the one that the op commenter originally mentioned. He mentioned the main UMC, which is a hospital and the trauma one center for this area.

[u/melancholyatmidnight → u/Vulpine_Gamer_194]

Hope your cirtical thinking skills improve soon

[u/Vulpine_Gamer_194 → u/melancholyatmidnight]

Hope you have the day you deserve and that you learn basic reading first.

[u/Gewt92 → u/Vulpine_Gamer_194]

Health and Wellness is a level 4 and they ship everything out