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Private equity in health care puts patients’ lives in danger, studies show
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of US Right to Know
Posted: August 7th, 2025
https://usrtk.org/healthwire/private-equity-in-health-care-p...
Private equity firms claim their investments in U.S. health care modernize operations and improve efficiency, helping to rescue failing healthcare systems and support practitioners. But recent studies build on mounting evidence that suggests these for-profit deals lead to more patient deaths and complications, among other adverse health outcomes. Recent studies show private equity (PE) ownership across a wide range of medical sectors leads to: Poorer medical outcomes, including increased deaths, higher rates of complications, more hospital-acquired infections, and higher readmission rates; Staffing problems, with frequent turnover and cuts to nursing staff or experienced physicians that can lead to shorter clinical visits and longer wait times, misdiagnoses, unnecessary care, and treatment delays; Less access to care and higher prices, including the withdrawal of health care providers from rural and low-income areas, and the closure of unprofitable but essential services such as labor and delivery, psychiatric care, and trauma units. Economist Atul Gupta showed in 2021 that private equity acquisitions of U.S. nursing homes over a 12-year period increased deaths among residents by 10%—the equivalent of an additional 20,150 lives lost. Patients treated at PE-owned facilities, whose numbers have skyrocketed, continue to experience worse or mixed outcomes—from higher mortality rates to lower satisfaction—compared to those treated elsewhere.
Note: BlackRock and Vanguard manage over $11 trillion and $8 trillion respectively—an unprecedented concentration of financial power. We hear outrage about billionaires and oligarchs, but rarely about private equity firms, who are backed by both political parties and are drastically reshaping our economy, contributing to environmental destruction, and extracting wealth from communities in the US and all over the world. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and financial industry corruption.
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