Medical staffing companies cut doctors’ pay while spending millions on ads
IMO, the most fascinating thing about this report is that it exposes a fight between two groups: 1) traditional health insurance companies 2) private equity backed provider groups, both of whom would be opposed to universal single payer healthcare as a right.It almost reads like a turf war over which industry subgroup has more right to the unusually high healthcare costs paid by Americans, driven by demand for profits from shareholders, which probably indirectly includes someone like me who has a 401k.This fight has been going on for a very long time though.  One reason (among many) that large medical provider groups started forming in the US more than a decade ago was to increase their leverage against insurance companies, who they felt were undercompensating them - small medical practices have little more leverage with insurance companies than consumers on the open insurance market.  At some point these larger medical groups attracted the attention of private equity investors, who themselves demand a return on investment.In the end it seems like the loser here is the healthcare consumer, who will pay the higher costs of this system, especially those without significant capital in for-profit healthcare related enterprises.