This is too long to post but I will note a link and the first few paragraphs to see if you might be interested in reading the whole article.

As Americans are overwhelmed with medical bills, patient financing is now a multibillion-dollar business, with private equity and big banks lined up to cash in when patients and their families can’t pay for care.

F. DOUGLAS STEPHENSON

November 29, 2022
Private equity has succeeded in depicting itself as part of the productive economy of health care services. even as it is increasingly being recognized as being parasitic. The essence of this toxic parasitism is not only to drain the host’s nourishment, but also to dull the host’s brain so that it often does not even recognize that the parasite is there. This is the illusion that health care services in the United States suffer under today.

Parasitic private equity is consuming US health care from the inside out, weakening its structure and strength and enriching investors at the expense of patient care and patients. Incremental health reforms have failed. It’s time to move past political barriers to achieve consensus on real reform. says J.E. McDonough, Professor of Practice at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Private equity firms are financial termites devouring the woodwork and foundations of the US health care system. Laura Katz Olson documents in her new book, Ethically Challenged: Private Equity Storms US Health Care, “PE firms are gobbling up physician and dental practices; homecare and hospital agencies; mental health, substance abuse, eating disorder, and autism services; urgent care facilities; and emergency medical transportation.” Private equity has become a growing and diversified part of the American health care economy. Demonstrated results of private equity ownership include higher patient mortality, higher patient costs, fewer jobs, poorer quality, and closed facilities.

What is Private Equity?

A private equity fund is a large unregulated pool of money run by financiers who use that money to invest in and/or buy companies and restructure them. They seek to recoup gains through dividend pay-outs or later sales of the companies to strategic acquirers or back to the public markets through initial public offerings. But that doesn’t capture the scale of the model. There are also private equity-like businesses who scour the landscape for companies, buy them, and then use extractive techniques such as price gouging or legalized forms of complex fraud to generate cash by moving debt and assets like real estate among shell companies. PE funds also lend money and act as brokers, and are morphing into investment bank-like institutions. Some of them are public companies.

While the movement is couched in the language of business, using terms like strategy, business models returns of equity, innovation, and so forth, and proponents refer to it as an industry, private equity is not business. On a deeper level, private equity is the ultimate example of the collapse of the enlightenment concept of what ownership means. Ownership used to mean dominion over a resource, and responsibility for caretaking that resource. PE is a political movement whose goal is extend deep managerial controls from a small group of financiers over the producers in the economy. Private equity transforms corporations from institutions that house people and capital for the purpose of production into extractive institutions designed solely to shift cash to owners and leave the rest behind as trash. Like much of our political economy, the ideas behind it were developed in the 1970s and the actual implementation was operationalized during the Reagan era.

LINK: https://www.commondreams.org/v...ing-us-health-system

Crap anti-capitalism article. The author doesn't segment private equity firms from one another (i.e. VC vs. growth equity) and public investment in healthcare entities isn't superior as the lack of public experience in the operation/development/financing of healthcare entities, pharma and med device firms is frankly sad.

Not sure what the fuck the author means by "political economy"... pointing the finger at Reagan, who depoliticized all of the economy as much as possible - remember lessez-faire?

The article's conclusion indicates the author wants government to take over the healthcare system. Yeah, that will work out well.

If not, what's the overall solution - not invest in healthcare?

quote:

Originally posted by Dakor:
What's the solution - not invest in healthcare?

Force healthcare providers to complete. Make charge master documents public so anyone can compare costs and choose based on price and perceived quality.

There's currently little or no incentive for providers to compete or lower any costs paid by patients.

quote:

Originally posted by bryan11:
Force healthcare providers to complete. Make charge master documents public so anyone can compare costs and choose based on price and perceived quality.

There's currently little or no incentive for providers to compete or lower any costs paid by patients.

Agree with you there... but what does that have to do with private equity? The pricing system and lack of transparency grossly exceeds the historical existence of the PE industry.

I think healthcare consumers would also benefit if insurance companies could compete nationwide... that would do more to lower costs than pricing transparency, which is a bit more difficult to pull off given the differences in human biology/indicatons for thorough wellness outcomes. The reason insurance firms don't is b/c of a congressional act in the 1950's, which the public should demand Congress to overhaul.

Progressive bullshit..

Common Dreams NewsCenter, often referred to simply as Common Dreams, is a 501 nonprofit, U.S.-based news website with a stated goal of serving the progressive community. Common Dreams publishes news stories, editorials, and a newswire of current, breaking news. Wikipedia
Headquarters: Portland, Maine

Because bureaucratic, centralized government “one size fits all” red-tape authority is so supremely efficient….

BTW I do not agree with government running healthcare. Medicare and Medicaid are a GIANT mess. I also agree that there are differences in private equity firms. Cerebral is a load of shit. Take NPs with limited experience and have them prescrible Adderall over the phone. I think the Mexican cartels would be jealous.

Health care is different than selling cars or groceries. Advertising drugs and medical procedures on TV is ridiculous. Only one other country advertises directly to consumers.

I could care less about the political persuasion of the publication. If you like private equity so much you can submit a request to their website for whatever medical procedure you need. The private equity firm will decide if it is cost effective not your physician. Then you can bitch to them about how long you have to wait for surgery.

^^^^ But would Josey Wales like it?

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
BTW I do not agree with government running healthcare. Medicare and Medicaid are a GIANT mess. I also agree that there are differences in private equity firms. Cerebral is a load of shit. Take NPs with limited experience and have them prescrible Adderall over the phone. I think the Mexican cartels would be jealous.

Health care is different than selling cars or groceries. Advertising drugs and medical procedures on TV is ridiculous. Only one other country advertises directly to consumers.

I could care less about the political persuasion of the publication. If you like private equity so much you can submit a request to their website for whatever medical procedure you need. The private equity firm will decide if it is cost effective not your physician. Then you can bitch to them about how long you have to wait for surgery.

We have a hospitalist writing protocols and deciding what each doctor can and can't do right now. Would a bean counter from private equity be better or worse? Both are likely deciding based on financial info. Competition is missing, though.

Imagine if healthcare was performance based pay … Like many other organizations/professions.

And I’m not talking about reppin’ drugs, a.k.a. detail men, pretending to be MDs

quote:

Originally posted by h2oys:
^^^^ But would Josey Wales like it?

Or Chief Dan George.

You drink it.