The headquarters of the Cleveland Clinic.

The very rich but nonprofit Cleveland Clinic continues to gobble up property in the low-income neighborhood around it as the health system expands abroad to sell its services to rich people there.

As an article in Politico reports:

“The Clinic is a global success story, but its host community remains mired in poverty.

There’s an uneasy relationship between the Clinic — the second-biggest employer in Ohio and one of the greatest hospitals in the world — and the community around it. Yes, the hospital is the pride of Cleveland, and its leaders readily tout reports that the Clinic delivers billions of dollars in value to the state….”

“But it’s also a tax-exempt organization that, like many hospitals, fought to preserve its not-for-profit status in the years leading up to the Affordable Care Act. As a result, it doesn’t have to pay tens of millions of dollars in taxes, but it is supposed to fulfill a loosely defined commitment to reinvest in its community.

“That community is poor, unhealthy and — in the words of one national neighborhood-ranking website — “barely livable.”

“It’s the paradox at the heart of the Cleveland Clinic, as it lures wealthy patients and expands into cities like London and Abu Dhabi. Its stated mission is to save lives. But it can’t save the neighborhood that continues to crumble around it.”

To the article, please hit this link.