New Gallup poll: Ratings of healthcare providers.. Nurses come in ahead of docs. Insurance companies tank.
This is the US health system
- Thread starter watu05
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I'd like to see the breakdown of other risks it caused vs in lieu of other treatments.
Just another example of how private equity groups are destroying American healthcare. The profit motive and Private equity have replaced docs in ER's with nurses, made hospice into a scam, and bankrupted hospitals. Most advanced countries run their health care systems like utilities not opportunities for high P/E stocks or private equity groups to soak tax payers and insurance companies.
Cancer Patients Denied Care
When Barbara Quarrell was diagnosed with cancer in 2022, she headed to Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she had cared for patients for years as a nurse. However, the hospital wouldn't take her insurance, so she was denied care there, NBC News reportedopens in a new tab or window.
The news outlet provided Memorial with the names of 9 patients who said they were turned away or had to pay up front for care. Three more patients who had reported similar experiences asked not to be identified, and another was deceased, the outlet reported.
Memorial was formerly a nonprofit community hospital owned by the city and county, but it's now a for-profit facility operated by private equity-backed Lifepoint Health, NBC News reported. "Memorial is just one facility, but the changes there underscore a nationwide trend of for-profit entities taking over nonprofit hospitals' operations," the article stated.
Neither Memorial nor Lifepoint pointed to specific inaccuracies or discussed the experiences of the 9 patients, NBC News reported. A spokesperson for Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm behind Lifepoint, did not provide comment.
Though Memorial says it does not deny care, 2 officials there called to apologize to 2 patients who had spoken with NBC News, the outlet noted.
Ultimately, Quarrell relocated more than 200 miles away to receive care at another facility that took her insurance.
Cancer Patients Denied Care
When Barbara Quarrell was diagnosed with cancer in 2022, she headed to Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she had cared for patients for years as a nurse. However, the hospital wouldn't take her insurance, so she was denied care there, NBC News reportedopens in a new tab or window.
The news outlet provided Memorial with the names of 9 patients who said they were turned away or had to pay up front for care. Three more patients who had reported similar experiences asked not to be identified, and another was deceased, the outlet reported.
Memorial was formerly a nonprofit community hospital owned by the city and county, but it's now a for-profit facility operated by private equity-backed Lifepoint Health, NBC News reported. "Memorial is just one facility, but the changes there underscore a nationwide trend of for-profit entities taking over nonprofit hospitals' operations," the article stated.
Neither Memorial nor Lifepoint pointed to specific inaccuracies or discussed the experiences of the 9 patients, NBC News reported. A spokesperson for Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm behind Lifepoint, did not provide comment.
Though Memorial says it does not deny care, 2 officials there called to apologize to 2 patients who had spoken with NBC News, the outlet noted.
Ultimately, Quarrell relocated more than 200 miles away to receive care at another facility that took her insurance.
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They would a lot more if they could.
This is one of the more interesting podcasts about the utter worthlessness of private equity's involvement in American Healthcare. They have raised prices and produced anti-competitive behavior and actually might have contributed to deaths, especially during the pandemic
The biden administration has had enough and are starting to go after this joke scene.
I’ll start listening to that when I hear Congress on both sides has stopped taking money from the VC PE groups.
100%. We always hear lip service around election time (See Biden Admin) then nothing substantive happens because both sides have been bought.
The combination of dependable demand with both private and government funding has made healthcare a playground for private equity abuse. Like water, power and other daily necessities, health care should not treated like a utility--not like crypto or an AI stock. Utilities are privately run and compete but have requirements for fairness that healthcare should copy.
I’ve stated for years that an industry where the consumer cannot price or service shop should not operate in under a capitalistic model. Just doesn’t work.
Private equity targeting cardiology practices. Their goal is more profitable, not better care.
jamanetwork.com
Trends in Private Equity Consolidation in Cardiovascular Care
This cross-sectional study examines the growth in numbers and geographic locations of private equity acquisitions in cardiology across the US.
jamanetwork.com
This article is about how Boeing was ruined by remaking a careful engineering oriented company into a Wall Street high flyer. The same thing is going on in our health care system. Private equity and large insurers are taking what should be a careful, safety oriented medical industry into a financially oriented, high P/E Wall Street high flyer. Boeing ended up killing hundreds of people and may kill more. Our health care system could do much worse.
Unfortunately, with a $36T debt. $2T in annual deficits. $1T in annual debt service costs. There’s currently not much appetite for another massive government spending program. I’m afraid single payer is dead for the foreseeable future.
The financialization issue can be solved by treating healthcare industry as a utility, not like AI or other high P/E areas. Private equity groups make their money by buying in, reducing quality and expenses, and denying coverage and following the Jack Welch failed model that ruined both Boeing, McDonald Douglas and GE.. For the insured, it's death panels on steroids. Switzerland, Germany and other industrialized countries have competing private insurers just as we have private utilities and it works well. Let the drug companies be high flyers, but not the hospitals, ERs, cardiac providers, etc. They provide basic services, much the same as electricity and water.
Who said big spending program? It's the opposite. As it is now, private equity groups are gaming the system by overcharging Medicare for unneeded procedures and services while reducing quality of care in purchased practices to fuel high P/E growth.. Treat healthcare as we do utilities and take that incentive out. We have large, well run private utilities providing power and water. Treat healthcare the same way.
As a person who knows some ins and outs of these large well run utilities…. I would say that healthcare shouldn’t be governed like a utility…. Unless you also make some changes to how utilities are run. Everyone is always trying to game the system in every industry.
That being said, I think the UK utilities who I have been in contact with have a fairly advanced regulator who keeps them more honest and operating more in the best interest of their rate payers. I’m guessing they have the same expectancy behind the NHS. I would absolutely take the NHS over what we have now.
Agree. My comment was directed toward the current state of our largest government programs…Social Security, Medicare, even the VA. We seem to have issues with doing what is necessary to properly fund these programs. Still….as I’ve said many times, you can’t operate a system where consumers can’t shop by price and quality of service in a capitalistic model.
Both Germany and Switzerland, to name two, use private insurance companies to run their healthcare systems. Prices and plans are standardized. Unlike the US, they are not 'hot' stocks maintaining a high P/E at all costs. The expats I've spoken too in Germany love it.
the us health insurance system worked well until the gov introduced gov run Medicare. Then it complicated
noI'm9
The Boeing saga continues and tracks what is going on in our health system as private equity groups increasingly take over service providers and cut back on core expenses to reduce service quality and improve profits. Boeing was a national treasure ruined by greed. No Boeing exec has ever spent a day in prison and those that have left have done so with golden parachutes.
From Bloomberg: "How did it come to this? S&P Global Ratings is weighing downgrading the credit score of Boeing, one of America’s most storied companies, to junk. The embattled planemaker continues to suffer from the fallout of a protracted labor strike. The walkout however is just the latest crisis for a company whose recent stretch of troubles go back at least six years, to two horrific crashes of its flawed 737 Max planes that killed 346 people. Since then, the hits have kept coming for Boeing. As for S&P, it estimates the company will incur a cash outflow of approximately $10 billion in 2024, due in part to costs associated with the strike. The company is also likely to need additional funding to meet its day-to-day cash needs and finance debt maturities. Junk rated companies usually face higher borrowing costs than their investment-grade counterparts. Boeing has $4 billion of debt coming due in 2025 and also $8 billion coming due in 2026, Moody’s Ratings said last month. If the strike continues toward the end of the year, a credit rating downgrade is more likely, S&P warned."
From Bloomberg: "How did it come to this? S&P Global Ratings is weighing downgrading the credit score of Boeing, one of America’s most storied companies, to junk. The embattled planemaker continues to suffer from the fallout of a protracted labor strike. The walkout however is just the latest crisis for a company whose recent stretch of troubles go back at least six years, to two horrific crashes of its flawed 737 Max planes that killed 346 people. Since then, the hits have kept coming for Boeing. As for S&P, it estimates the company will incur a cash outflow of approximately $10 billion in 2024, due in part to costs associated with the strike. The company is also likely to need additional funding to meet its day-to-day cash needs and finance debt maturities. Junk rated companies usually face higher borrowing costs than their investment-grade counterparts. Boeing has $4 billion of debt coming due in 2025 and also $8 billion coming due in 2026, Moody’s Ratings said last month. If the strike continues toward the end of the year, a credit rating downgrade is more likely, S&P warned."
Same theme. This time the national parks and ARA Services. If you go to Yosemite, take your own tent and food. Also from Bloomberg. There's an add before the video, but you can hit the "skip ad" button.
Video Link.
Video Link.
Two likely trends under Trump that will deteriorate the US health care system:
1) Trump/RFKjr will want to take center stage over health care professionals. The healthcare establishment doesn't know how to push back
2) Trump will 'privatize' more of the healthcare system. As has been posted above and with new examples showing up weekly, private equity has found the healthcare a fertile ground for buying practices, hospitals, and Medicare services, reducing staffing and quality of care, and loading it all up with debt. Add in health insurance's death panels of denied claims, and results will be more closed hospitals, denied services, and inept care. That trend is already in place: it will accelerate. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/what-happens-when-private-equity-takes-over-hospital
1) Trump/RFKjr will want to take center stage over health care professionals. The healthcare establishment doesn't know how to push back
2) Trump will 'privatize' more of the healthcare system. As has been posted above and with new examples showing up weekly, private equity has found the healthcare a fertile ground for buying practices, hospitals, and Medicare services, reducing staffing and quality of care, and loading it all up with debt. Add in health insurance's death panels of denied claims, and results will be more closed hospitals, denied services, and inept care. That trend is already in place: it will accelerate. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/what-happens-when-private-equity-takes-over-hospital
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