Hedge Funds.

[Editorial]

When a hedge fund takes over a company they milk it for all it assets and then toss it out in the trash. Take a look at the news media.

The Hartford Courant the longest printed newspaper in the the country, all it is now is a bunch of canned articles with no local content. The sharks are also gobbling up the healthcare industry.

Steward Healthcare, Lown Institute reported,

Steward implosion provides cautionary tale on private equity in health care

By Judith Garber and Imari Daniels

March 19, 2024

Private equity acquisitions in healthcare have grown rapidly over the past decade, and hospitals are no exception. As of January 2024, at least 460 hospitals are now owned by private equity firms, comprising 30% of for-profit hospitals in the U.S. 

Previous reports have shown the perils of private equity acquisitions of rural hospitals, but these aren’t the only type of hospital at risk. Steward Health Care, a for-profit system formerly owned by a private equity firm, is selling nine hospitals in Massachusetts, after running out of money to run the hospitals. Here’s what happened, and what the fallout might mean for Massachusetts communities.

[…]

Beyond immediate employee concerns, there’s a real risk of deepening economic challenges and health inequalities within the community with this disruption of healthcare services to almost 200,000 patients. As Steward hospitals transition to new owners, challenges will require concerted efforts from all stakeholders involved to overcome these obstacles and continue supporting the well-being of the communities they serve.

We see the same thing in the news media, PBS News…

Beyond immediate employee concerns, there’s a real risk of deepening economic challenges and health inequalities within the community with this disruption of healthcare services to almost 200,000 patients. As Steward hospitals transition to new owners, challenges will require concerted efforts from all stakeholders involved to overcome these obstacles and continue supporting the well-being of the communities they serve.

But you know where else we see this trend on a national level? Where billionaires are stripping the wealth from the middle class? Insurance industries made a killing last year, Insurance Business Magazine reported that,

In 2023, publicly traded US health insurance companies continued to experience growth, with total GAAP revenue climbing 10.4% to reach $1.07 trillion, as highlighted in a new report by AM Best.

What they are doing is milking the middle class just like hedge funds do.

They are making money hand over fist off of our health problems driving us to bankruptcy court over medical bills. Congress has been holding hearing on drug prices, The Congressional House committee writes,

Hearing Wrap Up: Oversight Committee Exposes How PBMs Undermine Patient Health and Increase Drug Costs

Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing titled “The Role of Pharmacy Benefit Managers in Prescription Drug Markets Part III: Transparency and Accountability.” At the hearing, Republicans and Democrats pressed Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) chief executives on their role in rising prescription drug costs. Lawmakers exposed how PBMs have collaborated to monopolize the pharmaceutical marketplace and push deliberate, anticompetitive policies that undermine local pharmacies, raise the cost of lifesaving drugs, and harm patients across the country. Earlier today, Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) issued a staff report on the Committee’s investigation of PBMs which details the self-benefiting pricing tactics used by the PBM industry. Lawmakers concluded Congress must continue working in a bipartisan fashion to address harmful PBM practices and advance legislative solutions to protect patients and reduce drug costs.   

These conglomerates gobble up companies to create monopolies that control huge slices of a market. Stocks are what they throw to us peons. It is the CEOs, and the other company executives who make the real money! CBS News reported that Musk made,

In the history of U.S. corporate pay packages, there have been plenty of massive payouts worth almost $1 billion in today's dollars. But none comes close to the $46 billion pay deal Tesla shareholders on Thursday handed to CEO Elon Musk.

Can you even imagine getting paid forty-six billion dollars? ProPublica wrote…

In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world’s richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes. He achieved the feat again in 2011. In 2018, Tesla founder Elon Musk, the second-richest person in the world, also paid no federal income taxes.

These billionaires suck the life out of our economy, if envy is green then greed is yellow!

Through their media out lets we get blames for the country’s woes… the LGBTQ+ community, the immigrants, and government are the scapegoats.

Ever since Reagan’s Trickle Down Theory the earning power for the middle class has been shrinking while the billionaires are sitting in the dough like Scrooge McDuck playing a vault of money.

This is the result of Reagan Trickle Down theory...

[/Editorial]