I commend Senator Warren for her proposed 'Stop Wall Street Looting Act,' which would close many of the loopholes used by the private equity players.

This hearing is a good start, and I am grateful to Senator Markey for getting the ball rolling.

We need to keep the doors open. We need to protect workers. And we need to provide quality care for our communities.

Failure to appear is cowardice.

We need to hold these executives accountable. We need to rein in private equity's influence over the health care system.

When private equity gets hold of health care providers, it is literally a matter of life and death.

So, Dr. Berwick, is there anything in the deal as reported so far that requires Steward to put that money back into the Massachusetts hospitals?

We need these hospitals, and we need them to be open and functioning, and functioning at a high level.

Thank you for joining us today for the hearing, When Health Care Becomes Wealth Care, How Corporate Greed Puts Patient Care and Providers At Risk.

Thank you, Senator Markey, for giving us a powerful tool for the job.

Thank you. And, Dr. Stinson, could you expand on how these for profit hospitals interfere in-- operationally with the delivery of equity and justice, especially for Black and Brown and immigrant communities that are most in need of health…

It clearly would ultimately wind up harming the nonprofit sector that provides the very same services.

If we close our doors, there is nowhere for people to go, nowhere.

But it should. And that is really the point here. So, I am also introducing new legislation to change that.

If that courage were available--and I think you see it in this room in Senator Markey and Senator Warren--then we know at least where to begin to prevent other Steward-like disasters.

Federal and state regulators should think once and think twice, and think three times, before they let another corporate investor suck more money out of the Steward system.

Thank you for inviting me to testify at today's important hearing.

The Stop Wall Street Looting Act's joint liability provisions would create actual accountability for that kind of corporate profiteering.