How private equity is decimating care

Where is the money for the most expensive health care system in the world going? The cut of gross national health care expenditures commanded by administrative overhead and waste has ballooned to an estimated 30 percent; the portion that pays doctors and nurses has fallen. Wealth extraction, whether through excessive billing, under-delivery, or the constant buying and selling of hospitals, has become the new normal in American health care.

Once upon a time, doctors and providers were some of the foremost defenders of our for-profit system. But in recent years doctors and nurses have had a disarming sense of clarity about the fundamental conflict between caring for patients and delivering value to shareholders. We think everyone should understand this fundamental disconnect with our system.

That’s why we decided to dedicate our August 2023 print issue to the business of health care—the inner workings of the monopolies and cartels extracting ever-greater sums for ever-lousier outcomes, and the policies and protocols pushing doctors and nurses to the brink—and increasingly into labor unions.

To kick off the series, Maureen Tkacik and I wrote an overview of what’s at stake in our corporatized health care system, both how it has gutten patient care and the ways providers are fighting back. It’s available on our website today.

Today, we also present the story of Stephanie Arnold, a young family physician who, after years of working several precarious jobs owned by private equity, finally started her own direct primary care practice to provide her patients affordable and comprehensive care untouched by corporate greed.

You can read the entire series as it is released here.