Private equity should not be allowed to loot one business after another, and I have introduced the most comprehensive bill to overhaul the private equity industry.

I do not understand how regulators can approve such a deal.

Failure is not an option. We have to fix the system.

The potential collapse of Steward Healthcare threatens access to health care for communities all across our Commonwealth.

To be clear, I would forbid private equity firms from owning or controlling health care delivery.

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.

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.

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

It is long past time to make sure patient health comes before shareholder wealth in Massachusetts and across our Country.

We need a health care system for everyone, supported by Medicare for all and the Green New Deal.

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

This is a prime example of the danger of private equity. The private equity firms walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars.

I think if it were beneficial for the hospitals or beneficial for the people of the Commonwealth, we would hear about all of those elements.

The blame for this crisis falls squarely on the private equity firm that bought the hospitals and stripped their assets.

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

the pursuit of profit ought to have, at most, a very, very limited role to play in navigating our way to the health and health care system we need and can afford, where the patient truly comes first.