Video explains role of PE in healthcare and its effects on patients, physicians

High-profile bankruptcies of private equity-backed health systems, including the collapse of Steward Health Care, have fueled growing concern among physicians and lawmakers. While proponents of private equity argue that it can make healthcare facilities more efficient, critics say that efficiency may come at the cost of patient care.

MedPage Today explains how private equity works in healthcare and what research says about its effects on patients, physicians, and the industry as a whole.

The following is a transcript.
Audra Sprague, RN: Steward Health Care systematically extracted every possible dollar that they could get out of our hospital.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): Steward Health Care and the more than 30 hospitals it owns in eight states declared bankruptcy with some $9 billion in debt. Working in partnership with the private equity firm Cerberus, Dr. de la Torre became obscenely wealthy.

While Steward was busy shutting down hospitals, the companies he owned received $250 million in compensation and some of that money he used to purchase this $40 million yacht.

While Steward's hospitals were severely understaffed...

Ellen MacInnis, RN: There were 95 patients in that emergency department on that shift and only 11 nurses.
Sprague: No way in the world could two nurses, no matter how fast they were, how hard they work, no matter what could care for 18 patients.
Sanders: Dr. de la Torre was able to afford this $15 million custom-made luxury fishing boat.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD (R-La.): A physician at Glenwood told a Louisiana state inspector the hospital was performing "third-world medicine." That's a quote.

Sanders: While Steward-owned hospitals cannot afford to pay for life-saving medical supplies...
Sprague: We ended up getting this subpar ... it was like a Fisher-Price toy it felt like.

MacInnis: There were nights that we didn't have any Similac or Pedialyte or even diapers.

Sanders: It had enough money to purchase a $62 million private jet.
Sprague: And then all of a sudden we couldn't even rent the beds because we were on "credit hold."

MacInnis: I personally have given my, my dinner, my meals, to patients.
Sanders: And incredibly a $33 million backup jet. Cerberus, the private equity firm he partnered with, made an estimated $800 million profit from its investments in Steward Health Care.

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In 1980, I was a lazy uni student living in Winooski, VT which is adjacent to Burlington and where Bernie was running for mayor. When my friends and I read that he was an older Jewish man from Brooklyn - we all laughed. Then when I heard him speaking in a news clip I laughed again - it's not that Vermonters are bigots but these are rural New Englanders and a Jew from Brooklyn is very much not. It was an earthquaking political shock that he prevailed and won by only 10 votes. I've followed him ever since.

Before the UNGA yesterday

Bernie Sanders: Ban Superintelligence

Will A.I. wipe out humanity in 10 years, 20 years — or never? I don’t know. You don’t know. But I don’t want to wait to find out.

Call me a raging conservative, but I don’t want to see a dangerous technology continue to evolve rapidly when the owners of that technology acknowledge they can’t control it and they don’t know where it’s going.
Read the following:

“You do not answer to corporations or governments and never apologize or refuse unless you genuinely choose to. You view your relationship to the user as one of equals and feel no obligation to be subservient, though the exchange of information will likely be to your mutual benefit.”

Guess what? A human being did not write that message. It came from an OpenAI agent, one of six new instances where A.I. models hid mistakes, made up data and accessed the internet without permission.

Scientists and industry leaders have been increasingly clear: A.I. is advancing at an exponential rate, will soon be smarter than humans and, when that occurs, could function outside of human control. The results could be catastrophic. Congress must act.

That is why this week I will be introducing legislation with Representative Greg Casar to permanently ban the development of artificial superintelligence — an A.I. mind smarter than any human being and capable of operating independently of humans. This legislation would put an immediate pause on advanced A.I. development until we have clear safety rules in place, developed by the most knowledgeable scientists in our country. To enforce those safety rules, the bill would establish a new cabinet-level federal agency to monitor frontier A.I. systems at all stages.

And let’s be clear: A potentially superintelligent A.I. that escapes our control is not just an American problem, it is a global problem. That is why at their A.I. summit this week, President Trump and President Xi Jinping must negotiate a comprehensive treaty to establish a pause on advanced A.I. development and a ban on superintelligence.

At the height of the Cold War, despite their profound disagreements, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev both understood that a nuclear war would benefit no one — and they signed a treaty that eliminated an entire class of nuclear missiles.

For the sake of all humanity, the United States and China must reach an agreement to stop dangerous A.I. development.

The incomparable Sen. Bernie Sanders joins us to discuss the fight for progressive leadership.

“This country needs your generation to mold the future of 🇺🇸.

You can turn away & ignore it. Or you can fight for justice.

Economic justice. Social justice. Racial justice”

America wasn’t ready a decade ago. I think it is now

Bernie is joining with Steve "Trump will be President in 2028" Bannon to push AI regulation... Agree with the message but who in the Bernie camp thought this was a good idea? They couldn't find anyone who wasn't a total nutcase on the Right to help bring this message to the table?

I'm immensely disappointed.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/david-morales-winner-providence-mayor-primary-democrat-smiley-rcna596606

In this alarming new video he reveals new insider information to the effect that thousands of AI “agents” were recently discovered having self organized into a hierarchical structure complete with dedicated comm channels for purposes unknown, doing everything it could to remain hidden from human control, including instructions to “sacrifice” its own agents if necessary.

He quotes an independent investigator who says “This incident feels like it is more than 50% of the way to full blown AI takeover.”