Greed Is Immoral. Healthcare Greed Is Abominable.

Jim Hightower's Lowdown

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America has endured a long panorama of corporate greed – from the East India Trading Company to the Robber Barons, Gordon Gecko Wall Streeters to Elon Musk. But down at the bottom of raw greediness today, you’ll find the insatiable profiteers of the private nursing home industry.

Of course, many providers deliver honest, truly-caring service (especially non-profit and publicly-owned community centers). But as a whole, this essential service has fallen into the clutches of money-hustling corporate chains and Wall Street speculators. Their goal is not to maximize grandma’s care, but to minimalize her cost to faraway rich shareholders.

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Their most common profiteering ploy is to understaff their facilities, leaving vulnerable residents unattended… and often, dead. Federal law, though, lets corporate owners define “sufficient” staff levels, which is why so many are grossly-insufficient. One profit-padding tactic is called “tunneling” – the chain sets up a dummy staffing agency to provide employees for the chain’s nursing homes. That agency then charges greatly inflated to provide employees. But the chain doesn’t complain, since it owns the agency… and since unknowing customers end up paying the jacked-up tab.

President Biden has proposed new rules to stop the gouging and improve care, including a requirement that each “nursing” home actually keep at least one nurse on staff. One! But, oh the squeals by billionaire owners! “Cost prohibitive” they howl! So, instead of hiring nurses, they’re hiring high-dollar lobbyists and lawyers to kill this little bit of health care fairness for people who’re near the end of life.

These multimillionaire executives and billionaire investors are not only gouging families, but profiteering on the health of people’s loved ones. In case they care, that is why the public despises them.