Warren Moves to Ban Private Equity From Owning Medical Practices
Bill to Ban Private Equity from Owning Medical Practices
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and 12 other lawmakers introduced bicameral legislation to bar private equity firms and insurers from owning medical practices, modeled on an Oregon law already used to block a corporate takeover. With 82 percent of physicians now employed by corporate entities — up from 62 percent in 2019 — and private equity health care investment jumping from $5 billion in 2000 to $104 billion in 2024, backers say the bill's FTC, state attorney general, and private right of action enforcement gives it real teeth.
Patients want to know that decisions about their health are being made by their doctors, not by Wall Street investors. If we're going to lower costs and un-rig the health care system, we need to stop the corporate takeover of medicine.
- throwaway13337
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.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan
It's actually worse with veterinary practices.
Younger veterinarians are drowning in school debt and can't buy the practices from the older folks that are retiring. So, private equity is basically snatching all of them up right now, betting that childless millennials are going to pay tons of money on veterinary care when their pandemic pups begin to reach end-of-life.
They're going to cut wages for all the staff, and hike all the prices, because unlike with human medical care, there's hardly any regulation (yet).
- elliotto
Australia is on its way down this path after Brookfield / Healthscope was holding a private hospital hostage against the government and had performance so degraded a child died. Hopefully we (aus) continue down this path of burning off the rot.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-27/nsw-government-joes-l...
- Nifty3929
Remember that when private equity buys out a business, there is at least one major winner in that moment: the current owners who have been building up that business over years.
One foreseeable consequence of this bill is that it reduces the ultimate value of starting and building your own practice, leading to more consolidation among existing large operators. As this is foreseeable, I also imagine that it's an unstated goal.
- NegativeK
Can someone steelman private equity, please? I'm honestly looking for the upsides (for non-investors) of when PE moves into an industry like medicine and begins buying up businesses that traditionally aren't already large chains.
I already hear the downsides frequently from someone whose work is directly affected.
- stephen_cagle
My main problem with PE is that it is being invested in by things that I do not consider "investors" like retirement funds, teacher's pensions, annuities, etc. Many of these things have sort of implicit guarantees from the State or Federal government. These organizations should be completely banned from investing in PE. PE investments should only be invested in by "investors", and investors understand that their investment may go to zero.
- nargella
I did a small research project based on medical billing challenge data (https://medgis.te0.io/). I tried to correlate the data to PE firms (best effort). As far as I could tell they were just a volume player but not the worst. After talking to people in the industry, theres some real sleezy doctors out there. Some do appointments at hospitals even if not required so they can charge more. There’s more anecdotes. All the incentives are messed up and I’m not sure how to fix without policy changes.
- thelastgallon
PE has bought most of hvac, electrical, plumbing, daycare, dentist. They keep the same local well established name, but is run centrally by the PE firm. They employ smooth talking salesmen to convince homeowners to pay tens of thousands of dollars for simple things. The salesmen makes 150K+ commissions. The actual plumbers/hvac people make $20/hour. The HVAC salesmen convince unsuspecting homeowners to spend 30K - 70K on upgrades and warranties. They also get a percentage from the manufacturer, usually some shitty brand. They sell warranty/services package which is questionable.
- s0kr8s
If you want to look at how similar laws have played out in practice recently at the state level, look up 2026 CPOM (Corporate Practice of Medicine) laws in Oregon, California, and Washington or Massachusetts in 2025.
Nice summary of the legal landscape here:
https://www.dlapiper.com/en/insights/publications/2026/07/co...
- djfobbz
They'll still manage to figure out some loophole to do it anyway. PE really is cancer to most industries.