Thread

Bill to Ban Private Equity from Owning Medical Practices

509 points · 384 comments · paimapi

throwaway13337 · 1789952505 · focus · HN ↗
There's a pattern to the kinds of companies PE buys and I think it points to the real problem.
They like companies with some kind of moat that makes it hard to unseat them. Basically, companies where there is no alternative for the consumer. That way, they can inflict abuse but know there will be nowhere to run.
There are two different ways to achieve this. Monopoly and regulation. Hospitals have both government granted locational monopoly and tons of regulations that make it impossible to compete.
Private equity is the symptom, not the disease.
Until we get at the disease, new monsters will be born with different name filling the same ecological niche. It's economic natural selection played out in the environment we created.
1. Waterluvian · 1789953119 · focus · HN ↗
  The Americans simply will not reject their broken for-profit medical system wholesale. What I see is one more attempt at chipping away at it in hopes that maybe they can succeed piecemeal.
  1. 999900000999 · 1789964120 · focus · HN ↗
    Reagan and other racists succeeded in turning government benefits into a synonym for POC stealing from White Americans.
    It’s fine for a military defense contractor to go a few billion over budget for a weapons platform that barely works, but if a single mother uses food stamps to buy cake ingredients and then sells a few pieces of cake that’s a travesty.
    Millions of Americans, not just white, but plenty of Hispanics, Blacks and Asians too, voted to take away their own medical insurance.
    Because they know that they’re just temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Not the type of people who need handouts.
    bopou · 1790170455 · focus · HN ↗
    This reads like it was written by a 2022 LLM trained on 2024 Reddit
    999900000999 · 1790181648 · focus · HN ↗
    >Defense Contractor President Sentenced to 48 Months in Bribery Scheme
    <a href="https://legacy.sba.gov/article/2026/01/16/defense-contractor-president-sentenced-48-months-bribery-scheme" rel="nofollow">https://legacy.sba.gov/article/2026/01/16/defense-contractor...
    Taking kickbacks and awarding no bid contracts is bad.
    Not as bad as baking a cake!
    >Michigan woman faces up to 10 years behind bars for allegedly using food assistance for baked goods sold online
    <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/michigan-woman-faces-10-years-172856107.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/michigan-woman-faces-10-...
    To be fair maybe at sentencing they'll just give her probation, but it's still an absurd prosecution.
    At most this should of been a civil penalty. At best the local city council could of given her advice on how to apply for a small business loan.

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