Senator Warren, Rep. Goodlander, Lawmakers Renew Push to Root Out Private Equity Abuse in Health Care Amid Genesis Nursing Home Bankruptcies

Text of Bill (PDF)|One Pager (PDF)
Washington, D.C.– Today, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), along with House co-lead Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), introduced theCorporate Crimes Against Health Care Act of 2026to root out corporate greed and private equity abuse in the health care system. Following the bankruptcies of Steward Health Care and Genesis Health, two tragedies that put the lives of patients and seniors at risk, theCorporate Crimes Against Health Care Act hasgained momentum.
Over the last decade, private equity fund assets have more thandoubled, totaling$8.2 trillionin 2023. While private equity companies have purchased businesses in nearly every sector of the economy, their aggressive deal-making in the health care sector poses grave risks to patient health outcomes and raises fundamental concerns regarding the role of corporate interests in our healthcare system. Private equity companies routinely saddle companies they acquire with massive debt, sell off valuable assets, and extract exorbitant dividends and fees.
As a result, laxcorporateaccountability and transparency laws have provided cover for private equity’s parasitic practices, allowing executives toplunderhospitals, nursing homes, provider practices, and other health care entities with impunity.
“What happened with Genesis is the latest example of why we need to get private equity out of health care. We’ve seen enough to know that looting hospitals and nursing homes is basically a feature of private equity’s playbook,”said Senator Warren. “It's about time that corporate executives face real legal consequences when they put patients and communities at risk."
“I’ve spent my career standing up to powerful corporate interests that put their own profits ahead of people. For far too long, loopholes and lax laws have empowered private equity firms to plunder hospitals, nursing homes, and provider practices at unacceptable costs to the lives and livelihood of hardworking Americans,”said Congresswoman Goodlander.“Our commonsense Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act will prevent these abuses and ensure long-overdue accountability for corporate crimes.”
The Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act will:
“Sick patients should never be used to turn healthy profits. But that’s exactly what is happening in Oregon and across the nation as greedy corporate executives turn hospitals, nursing homes, and doctors’ offices into profit centers,”saidSenator Merkley. “We must crack down on private equity, whose greed is destroying our health care system for executives’ personal profit while patients are stuck footing the bill.”
“The Steward crisis exposed the dangers of private equity taking over our health care system. Instead of improving the health care provided by hospitals in Massachusetts and across the country, Dr. Ralph de la Torre and his corporate cronies raked in record profits and left workers and patients to fend for themselves. We must pass the Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act to end corporate greed in health care and prevent another Steward crisis from happening again,”said Senator Edward J. Markey.
This bill is endorsed by Americans for Financial Reform, the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, the American Economic Liberties Project, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the American Federation of Teachers, the Association for Independent Medicine, the Consumer Federation of America, the Coalition for Patient-Centered Care, Community Catalyst, Groundwork Collaborative, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, Public Citizen, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the Alliance for Retired Americans.
“We have a health care crisis in this country. Our profit-driven health care system is expensive, inefficient, and inaccessible to those who need it most. And private equity’s growing foothold in health care is only making this crisis ten times worse. It’s contributing to medical debt, worsening health outcomes, and creating unsustainable employment conditions for many health workers. It is far past time to put the needs of people over profits and hold private equity accountable. The Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act is an important and significant step in that direction,”said Michelle Sternthal, Interim Senior Director of Policy and Strategy at Community Catalyst.
“MNA nurses and healthcare professionals know all too well what happens when private equity firms and other for-profit operators take over our healthcare facilities. The drive to extract profits from healthcare has repeatedly jeopardized patient safety and destabilized the communities these organizations are supposed to serve. That is why we strongly support Senator Warren’s legislation to hold corporations accountable, recover the resources siphoned away from patient care, and ensure that those funds are directed toward healing our patients and not exploiting them,”said Katie Murphy, RN, President of the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
“Given the recent and difficult financial challenges facing providers across the country, it is now more important than ever to hold private equity and hedge fund owners accountable for the financial wellbeing of healthcare companies in their portfolios. These pressures are only worsened by the extractive business practices associated with private funds and the documented consequences that follow. That is why the Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act is a necessary and urgent intervention that would help protect the integrity of the nation’s healthcare systems,”said Chris Noble, Policy Director, Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP).
“SEIU members have seen, again and again, that when corporations treat healthcare like a cash grab, patients and frontline workers suffer the consequences. This bill sends a clear message to private equity firms that seek to line their pockets at the expense of people’s lives that if they cause real harm, they will face real consequences. We applaud Senator Warren for introducing legislation that will hold private equity companies accountable when their greed harms our families and communities,”said SEIU Executive Vice President Leslie Frane.
"Private equity takeovers have become a life-and-death struggle for our communities and our loved ones,"said Aditi Sen, managing director for campaigns and research at Americans for Financial Reform."When Wall Street firms siphon out all the value, cut staff, reduce care, and bankrupt healthcare providers like Steward, Prospect Medical, and Genesis, workers, families and communities pay the price. The Stop Corporate Crimes in Healthcare Act would help stop Wall Street owners from looting our healthcare system."
###