The benefit of investing in REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) is they are required by law to pay out 90% or more of their income in the form of distributions (basically, dividends).

As many investors who survived through the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 can attest, the real estate market can be very unstable.

The health care industry, on the other hand, is much more stable. That’s because governments, institutions, and individuals cannot cut back on health care spending no matter how good or bad the overall economy is. In many cases, it is quite literally a matter of life and death. Maybe that’s why about 3 in 5 personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills.

There are a select group of stocks that are both required to pay out 90% of their income as distributions and operate in the stable health care industry.

I’m talking about Health Care REITs – businesses that make their money through investing in health care related real estate: hospitals, long-term care facilities, medical office buildings, etc.

This article examines the only 3 large-cap United States based health care REITs with dividend yields greater than 4%. Click here to see 12 other high dividend stocks.

Health Care REIT #1: Ventas, Inc.

Ventas (VTR) is the 2nd largest of the 3 companies examined in this article based on its market cap of $18.8 billion. Ventas has paid steady or increasing dividends each year since 2000. Ventas was created in 1998 when it was spun-off from Vencor – which was renamed Kindred Healthcare (KND).

The company has changed significantly in 2015 through the acquisition of Ardent Health Services and the spin-off of its own post-acute care facilities into Care Capital Properties (CCP).  Ardent Health Services owns 14 hospitals and 3 multi-specialty physician groups in Amarillo, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Care Capital Properties spin-off was significant as well – the spin-off currently has a market cap of $2.3 billion.