Warren and Ocasio-Cortez Unveil Bill to Curb Private Equity in Medicine
A new congressional bill would close 'loopholes' private equity firms use to control physician practices.
What to know
- A bill backed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seeks to close loopholes private equity firms use to control physician practices.
- The legislation aims to push private equity out of healthcare broadly, according to WSJ reporting.
- The story originates from an exclusive Wall Street Journal report published September 16, 2026, with limited additional detail yet available.
Elizabeth Warren U.S. Senator, bill co-backer
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez U.S. Representative, bill co-backerPrivate equity firms Target of proposed legislation
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts
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WSJ details legislation to push private equity out of healthcare
A follow-up WSJ item elaborated that members of Congress are preparing legislation intended to push private equity out of healthcare entirely, not merely regulate it.
“Members of Congress are preparing legislation to push private equity out of healthcare…”
— Wall Street Journal, Reporting outlet · source -
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https:// truthout.org/articles/warren-i ntroduces-bill-to-ban-private-equity-from-owning-medical-practices/
2 more of the top 3 · 35 posts in this stretch
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I'm not so sure limiting competition is the way to go here. One thing I hate about US healthcare is the lack of price transparency. They would rather shut an entire hospital down before giving you a price sheet. So when outfits like Walmart were looking to get into healthcare and offer basic services like blood tests, checkups, xrays, and common…
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Don’t worry. Their best friend is somehow still on the medical executive committee. About 200 years old but still coherent . He’ll make some calls.
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WSJ reports Democrats drafting bill to curb PE in medicine
The Wall Street Journal reported exclusively that congressional Democrats, backed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are preparing legislation to close loopholes private equity firms use to control physician practices.
“A bill backed by Sen. Warren and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez would close ‘loopholes’ firms use to control physician practices.”
— Wall Street Journal -
first by Mastodon, 6d ago · also HN Best, HN Frontpage
1 more headline
- Bill to Ban Private Equity from Owning Medical Practices HN Best · 3d ago
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first by Yahoo Finance, 7d ago · also WSJ, WSJ Markets
1 more headline
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What people are saying 21 voices from 3 sites · best of 35 · verbatim
- Sep 21
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I'm unsure if I'm reading you correct. Are you saying that the disease is all "monopoly and regulation", or just some of it? Healthcare, infrastructure, etc are natural monopolies, and the alternative isn't much better. No one wants four parallell roads or multiple competing electrical grids, or side-by-side hospitals.We however don't want…
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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…
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> They like companies with some kind of moat that makes it hard to unseat them.The biggest moat is capital.PE is buying up things like medical practices, law firms, vets, etc, where typically there would be an upwards path for one generation to hire new blood to cover their markets and then sell partnership stakes to them when they want to retire…
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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…
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Warren was a 1980s Republican who did legal work on behalf of major corporations including Big Oil vultures.She stayed in the race for Super Tuesday in 2020 rather than consolidating the progressive vote for Sanders.Right before, her campaign accepted millions in funding from billionaires after promising not to. Her comment was roughly, as soon as…
- Sep 20
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Regulation is usually what you accept in exchange for a monopoly. I would argue a granted monopoly without any regulation is evidence of regulatory capture.If you want to argue from first principles, and we accept for a moment that granted monopoly is the system we are working in (whether or not you feel it's the optimal regime) then I'd argue…
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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:
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I feel it would be good to bring in (or back) compulsory partnership structures for key professional businesses like GPs, dentists, pharmacies, vets and accountants.The PE buy-up of these core local businesses isn't great for society generally, service delivery and the existence of a middle class.The other thing I feel gov should do is force a…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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If for-profit healthcare is allowed then it could be regulated like banking, with requirements to prevent failure (including requirements for financial health), and if there is failure, to ensure customers are protected and provide for continuity.Like banks, failure of a healthcare institution can be destructive for its customers and the…
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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…
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That's for hospitals though, in one state.Approximately 45% of GPs in Australia work in practices owned by private companies
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performance soooo degraded a child died?when people talk about how healthcare needs to be better and better and more and more, I say "tell me under your plan what diseases/injuries to what extant will not be treated: who do you say "no" to? Every country could spend every collective nickel they have, and some people still would not live to see the…
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Most importantly to fight it as Private Equity is creeping like a cancer into good health systems globally, even in Europe, to slowly but surely siphon away all that is good.It's important to fight it now before it is too late and other places also fall apart into a degraded, predatory, dystopian US system !
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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.
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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.
- Sep 18
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Did he at least get you any cool Lego sets or maybe a PS5 or something? Warhammer figs?
- Sep 17
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A group of Democrats has introduced bicameral legislation to ban private equity from owning medical practices as increasingly widespread corporate ownership continues driving up health care costs each year. The bill was introduced Wednesday by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) with the support of 12 other members of the Senate and House. The…
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GOOD. We are owned by everyone but ourselves. I’m owned by a university and it also sucks. So much conflict of interest. Patients suffer for it.