House targets private interests with bipartisan votes
HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania House took a wide bipartisan swipe at the private equity firms who have widened their impact on the state’s most basic necessities.
With bills intended to help ongoing crises in healthcare and housing, the legislature is signaling an appetite for a much shorter lead on the firms who have drained the system in service of investor profit.
“To say that they’re businesses is too kind,” said Majority Leader Rep. Matt Bradford, D-Norristown.
House Bill 1460 responds to the devastating closure of Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital in Delaware County, which has led to dangerously long travel times and overcrowding in the county’s remaining hospitals. It passed 121-82.
“Some critics of this legislation may say that this bill doesn’t go far enough because it doesn’t include not-for-profit hospitals,” said Rep. Timothy Bonner, R-Grove City, who argued that the government should regulate hospitals for which it’s the primary payer of services.
The bill would institute the oversight of the Attorney General’s office for any sale, purchase, or merger of for-profit hospitals, while leaving existing regulation for not-for-profit hospitals.
“This bill does have flaws despite several attempts to improve it,” said minority leader Rep. Jesse Topper, who urged his caucus to vote against it, though he noted the barriers to access for both rural and urban areas.
“In rural Pennsylvania, we’re struggling with health care access just as much if not greater than some of the urban and suburban areas. This bill is about oversight,” said Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint. “I do believe this bill is a step in the right direction.”
“We are doing this work to make sure it does not happen again the way it happened in our county,” said Rep. Gina Curry, D-Upper Darby.
The second is a bill that would protect mobile home owners from predatory rent hikes by private equity firms that have squeezed many out of affordable housing. It passed 144-59.
The bill would allow homeowners to form associations, cap rent increases and tie them to inflation, and creates parameters for acceptable circumstances that would warrant larger increases.
“I too love free markets. They’re awesome, but when we talk about this issue we’re talking about senior citizens, not just senior citizens. We’re talking about people on disability, people on a fixed income,” said Russ Diamond, R-Jonestown. “I do not represent a single private equity firm. I represent the people who live in these communities, so I’m going to stand with them.”
