Democrats Renew Efforts To End Private Equity Looting, PE 💸

[appalachiablue]

Photo: Sen. Eliz. Warren (D-Mass.) speaks at a press conference about Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre refusal to comply with a subpoena to testify to the Senate on Sept 5. 24.
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- 'Democrats Renew Effort to End Private Equity Looting,' "Union-busting, pollution, & bankruptcy aren't side effects of the private equity model: They are the model," said one campaigner backing the bill. "It's a smash and grab, plain & simple." Common Dreams, Oct., 10, 2024. Ed.
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Less than a month away from the U.S. general election, over a dozen congressional Democrats on Thursday renewed their fight to "fundamentally reform the private equity industry" with a bill that Rep. Mark Pocan said "will finally hold these predatory firms accountable and protect workers from being plundered by corporate greed."

"It's long past time for billionaires and big corporations to stop gambling with hardworking Americans' and their communities' assets in service of corporate greed," declared Pocan (D-Wis.), who is leading the Stop Wall Street Looting Act with Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

"In Wisconsin, we've seen what happens when private equity firms like Sun Capital raid companies for their wealth and leave workers and communities to pick up the pieces," he noted. "When Sun Capital took over Shopko—a Wisconsin-based retail chain that had stood strong for more than 50 years—they drained it dry, buried it in debt, pushed it into bankruptcy, and abandoned roughly 14,000 workers."

"Private equity takeovers are legal looting that make a handful of Wall Street executives very rich while costing thousands of people their jobs, putting valuable companies out of ­business, and in the case of healthcare, is literally a matter of life and death." Warren's state is also dealing with fallout from the industry. As The Boston Globe reported Thursday, the legislation is "designed to rein in the growing power of private equity firms and limit the sort of leveraged buyout deals that led to the crisis at Steward Health Care...
https://www.commondreams.org/news/democrats-renew-effort-to-end-private-equity-looting

- Private Equity's Ruthless Takeover of the Last Affordable Housing in America, (Sept. 2024)

[appalachiablue]

1. Sick Profit: Investigating Private Equity's Stealthy Takeover of Health Care 🥼

Sick profit: Investigating private equity's stealthy takeover of health care,' CBS News, *Nov. 14, 22.
- Cross Post from Health group -
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Two-year-old Zion Gastelum died just days after dentists performed root canals and put crowns on six baby teeth at a clinic affiliated with a private equity firm. His parents sued the Kool Smiles dental clinic in Yuma, Arizona, and its private equity investor, FFL Partners.

They argued the procedures were done needlessly, in keeping with a corporate strategy to maximize profits by overtreating kids from lower-income families enrolled in Medicaid. Zion died after being diagnosed with "brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen," according to the lawsuit.

Kool Smiles "overtreats, underperforms and overbills," the family alleged in the suit, which was settled last year under confidential terms. FFL Partners and Kool Smiles had no comment but denied liability in court filings. Private equity is rapidly moving to reshape health care in America, coming off a banner year in 2021, when the deep-pocketed firms plowed $206 billion into more than 1,400 health care acquisitions, according to industry tracker PitchBook.

Seeking quick returns, these investors are buying into eye care clinics, dental management chains, physician practices, hospices, pet care providers, and thousands of other companies that render medical care nearly from cradle to grave. Private equity-backed groups have even set up special "obstetric emergency departments" at some hospitals, which can charge expectant mothers hundreds of dollars extra for routine perinatal care...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/health-care-private-equity-medical-bills-stealthy-takeover/
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- Related: 'Slash and Burn, Is Private Equity Out of Control?' The Guardian, Oct. 10, 2024.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/114235698

[dalton99a]

4. +1

[TheFarseer]

2. Yes!

This great policy and a great line of attack. Can't hit them hard enough with this.

[appalachiablue]

3. Agree, I'm glad to see these reps working to stop PE looting. Tx for posting.

[dalton99a]

5. About damn time.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

6. Private equity AKA vulture capitalism

[appalachiablue]

7. Check, vultures destroying this country for 50 yrs. Killers. It has to end.