Outsourcing Medical Care

Why would anybody outsource elderly care to a private equity firm? Private equity firms do not have health care expertise; their expertise is in extracting cash out of a business. They don’t really offer any innovative solutions and instead rely on loading up companies with debt. In this day and age of constant disruption, that’s a recipe for disaster - think Toys R Us. This New York Times article just makes me angry.

If you looking for answers in bolstering your faltering business, look for answers anywhere but private equity or hedge fund firms. I have also read that these profit seeking firms have also gotten into the municipalities or multifamily business. Again, they generally have no expertise other than to load up the firm with onerous debt and to extract out cash.

It boggles my mind that governments still turn to these private equity or hedge fund firms.

In regards to health care, especially elderly health care, I just don’t see how a commercial business can make a lot of money because most of the elderly are really not wealthy and they are not bringing in income. Instead I imagine they are usually eating up their wealth in their final years. I would think that elderly health care, or maybe even any health care that’s similar to the elderly, is best provided by government. The profit motive tends to push towards cutting costs to maximize profits which could lead to cutting corners. Of course, I’m not an expert in healthcare and maybe there is a way to combine profit making and providing good health service but right now I’m just not seeing it. And this article just adds weight to my perception.

Finally, here’s another article that makes me angry. What's wrong with society that we keep voting in these people?