Who Owns Health Care? Doctors? The Government? Hospitals? Big Health Systems? Insurance Companies? Employers? Amazon? You—The Patient? Answer: None of the above. According to Modern Healthcare... Regardless of who ‘should’ own Healthcare (and trust me, it won’t be patients), the group that’s moving into the ‘top spot’ is Private Equity firms (PE). They are buying as much of Healthcare as possible ( doctor groups, hospitals, lab services...) Huh? Never heard of PE? Private equity typically refers to investment funds organized as limited partnerships that are not publicly traded and whose investors are typically large institutional investors, or wealthy individuals. And you thought Healthcare was already complex (and impersonal) before... Selected Excerpt: “We have to decide whether the goal of a healthcare system is to increase profits, because private equity firms are selecting those parts of healthcare where they can see a profit because their goal is to make profit,” AMA President Dr. Barbara McAneny said. “The consolidation of various parts of the healthcare industry has been shown to increase prices and decrease choice, and if you’re lucky, quality stays about the same.” …see more