[HN Gopher] Profit-Obsessed Private Equity Is Now Dominating the...
___________________________________________________________________
Profit-Obsessed Private Equity Is Now Dominating the US Hospice
System
Author : pessimizer
Score : 33 points
Date : 2023-05-28 21:55 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (jacobin.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (jacobin.com)
| version_five wrote:
| I agree that this is concerning. I'd also say that the only thing
| worse than PE running these would be the government running them
| (see Canada). This is a natural role for religious organizations
| (I'm not religious) and I don't know what most logically could
| take their place that would actually care about people.
| (Companies sort of have to due to competition, but after profits,
| governments don't have to care at all). Ideally incentivizing
| nonprofits to run these and disencentivizing for profit ownership
| it probably most reasonable.
| ska wrote:
| > PE running these would be the government running them (see
| Canada).
|
| I know there were a lot of problems in the Canadian system
| caused by or exposed by Covid, but weren't the worst of them
| private companies in some sort of private-public deal not, as
| your wording suggests, the government running them?
|
| I may be misremembering. Somewhat like the US state-to-state
| variability, province-to-province is quite different also I
| suspect.
| morkalork wrote:
| I adamantly disagree, there are a number of religious sects
| that follow a "life at all costs" line of belief and which
| effectively tortures people by prolonging their suffering. It
| is awful and has no place in a modern and compassionate
| society.
| funac wrote:
| I'm not sure religious organizations (or, at least, the
| religious organizations which would realistically be involved)
| have a very good record of running institutions that involve
| significant power asymmetries
| madballster wrote:
| While that sounds concerning, I have to question the underlying
| thesis: Does private ownership always short-change customers,
| like the subtitle insinuates? "hospice agencies are now for-
| profit, putting profit maximization over patient well-being."
|
| Do hotels or restaurants put profit maximization over customer
| well-being? If they do, they will be out of business rather soon.
| If the hospices have competition and comparability (for patients
| or their loved ones) then the same mechanism should work over
| time.
| RobotToaster wrote:
| >Does private ownership always short-change customers, like the
| subtitle insinuates?
|
| Corporations literally only have one goal, to generate the
| maximum profit for shareholders.
|
| By definition profit is money not spent on making services
| better.
| nologic01 wrote:
| Profit maximization is the overarching objective. Customer
| dissatisfaction, complaints, fines etc is only a problem if it
| starts eroding profits.
|
| Businesses have developed countless mechanisms to be able to
| survive client backlash.
|
| Oligopolies and cartels is a major trick. Competition
| highlights poor performers. Not good for business.
|
| Uninformed customers is another biggie. Hence, fight consumer
| protection mechanisms, limit disclosure etc.
|
| Finally, regulatory capture, eg fixing the rules of the game so
| that legally there is no recourse.
|
| So, yeah, in some ideal world in which economists win Nobel
| prizes arguing the optimality of the corporate structure you'd
| be right.
|
| We dont live in that ideal world.
|
| That sad thing is that, obviously, profit maximizing private
| enterprize, just like the public sector itself, are
| indispensable organizational units.
|
| Until we learn to tame them we will be paying the price.
| efields wrote:
| Hotels do this, and it's a race to the bottom. The hotel
| experience has gotten so bad people accept going days without
| turndown service now.
| throwaway5959 wrote:
| That's thankfully turning around. We were just in a hotel for
| a few days and they offered to turndown our room each night
| which we declined as we don't really make a mess and it was
| only two nights.
| version_five wrote:
| Would you like to "make a green choice" and have our staff
| ignore your dying loved one for the day in exchange for a $5
| Starbucks gift card?
| mym1990 wrote:
| Or maybe people want to be left alone in the evening?
| chasing wrote:
| > Do hotels or restaurants put profit maximization over
| customer well-being? If they do, they will be out of business
| rather soon. If the hospices have competition and comparability
| (for patients or their loved ones) then the same mechanism
| should work over time.
|
| This is not how it works and is why the government sometimes
| needs to step in with regulations. As a founder in the
| healthcare space once said to me: "I like regulations because
| it means I can do the right thing for my customers and not have
| to worry about competing with people who are willing to do harm
| because it's more profitable." Companies need to be able to
| compete. Some will do better. Some worse. But the government
| needs to establish the baseline rules so society as a whole
| isn't harmed.
| ska wrote:
| "private equity" is not the same as "private ownership", no?
| omginternets wrote:
| >I have to question the underlying thesis: Does private
| ownership always short-change customers, like the subtitle
| insinuates?
|
| What a bizarre misrendering of the _actual_ question, which is
| "does private equity systematically undermine the quality of
| healthcare?"
| howard941 wrote:
| Literally "vulture capitalism."
| hammock wrote:
| Kind of ironic to note that the world is upside down right now.
|
| Public companies, which are regulated precisely to protect the
| financial interests of shareholders, are forgoing profits for the
| sake of their ESG scores.
|
| Meanwhile, private equity, which is not regulated in the same way
| and theoretically could be more easily managed towards objectives
| other than profit, are smeared as "profit obsessed."
|
| Wild times
| oldstrangers wrote:
| Housing: Check
|
| Veterinarians: Check
|
| Healthcare: Check
|
| Education: Check
|
| Hospice? Check
|
| Cool.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Funeral Homes: https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/funeral-
| homes-private...
|
| Defense: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/03/22/as-
| private-equi...
|
| Adult content: https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/16/pornhub-owner-
| mindgeek-sol...
|
| Matt Stoller has lots of quality writing on the topic:
|
| https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/closing-down-the-billiona...
|
| https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/why-private-equity-should...
| candiddevmike wrote:
| Gotta find new industries to shuffle around all of their debt:
| https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights...
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-05-28 23:00 UTC)