This panel looks at the shocking toll of private equity companies - who organize hostile takeovers of hospitals, physicians networks, nursing facilities, and more - on U.S. health care. Increased private equity takeovers have come with shocking lapses in safety, with prices rising faster than at non-private equity acquired entities, while patients have been subjected to price gouging schemes. As one panelist says: "Private equity is incompatible with health care," but more and more of us are being impacted by the deadly practices of private equity firms that have purchased healthcare operations, and are quickly flipping them for a profit.
Eagan Kemp from Public Citizen discusses their new report "
Private Equity's Path of Destruction in Health Care Continues to Spread." Eagan is joined by Robert Seifert of Americans for Financial Reform, which will be issuing a report shortly about what the federal government, without additional legislation, can do to rein in private equity firms in the healthcare industry. And Rachel Madley from Rep. Pramila Jayapal's office joins to discuss Rep. Jayapal's
Healthcare Ownership Transparency Act, which would finally allow patients to know if their providers have been bought out by private equity, putting their quality of care and health outcomes at risk.
