Ambulance services used to be covered by local taxpayers, volunteers, or nonprofit hospitals, part of a suite of services akin to firefighting, which many people took for granted. This remained the status quo for emergency medical services for decades. Then, following the 2008 recession, private equity firms began to buy up ambulance companies. Quality has declined, and prices have shot up.
Of the three air medical transport companies that have since captured 67 percent of the U.S. market, two are private equity–owned. American Medical Response, the largest provider of ground ambulance services in the U.S., was purchased by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Known as KKR, this firm also owns one of the largest air transport companies, Air Medical Group Holdings. Priority Ambulance, LLC, which operates 400 medical transport vehicles, is a portfolio company of Enhanced Equity Funds.
Private Equity Chases Ambulances
prospect.org
Investment firms have bought up emergency medical service companies, squeezing soaring profits from vulnerable patients.Canadian health care is publicly funded and privately delivered, approximately the same vision that single-payer enthusiasts have for the American system. It even shares the same name as our largest government-run insurance provider: Medicare. But contrary to persistent American partisan mythmaking, no government officials sit in doctors’ offices or haunt hospital hallways with a checklist of all the services they’ll question and deny. They don’t dictate hands-on care. Canadians face little government interference or oversight of their health care, although, for historical reasons, their doctors retain much more power than patients.
As the temperatures drop, it's important to be aware of the dangers of the extreme cold. Older adults run a higher risk of health problems and injuries related to the weather.
Image Source: HealthinAging.org
An Uplifting Story to Close Out the Week
Linda Herring always wanted a big family. But she never imagined that she would foster more than 600 children and turn her home into a safe haven where every child was given shelter, food, clothing, and most importantly, endless amounts of love. Now 75 years old, Herring has been fostering children for nearly five decades in Johnson County, Iowa.
Iowa woman who fostered more than 600 children says she loved them 'like they were my own'
www.cnn.com
Linda Herring always wanted a big family. But she never imagined that she would foster more than 600 children and turn her home into a safe haven where every child was given shelter, food, clothing, a...Only a small percentage of older Americans, 6.8 percent, receive income from Social Security. Meanwhile, for many of these older Americans (40.2 percent), Social Security is their only income in retirement.
Retirement security is built on a foundation of secure income during retirement. For decades, researchers, financial advisors, and others have encouraged working Americans to pursue the so-called “three-legged stool” of retirement savings: Social Security; a defined benefit pension; and individual savings, typically through a defined contribution plan. This report examines the actual sources of retirement income for older Americans to find out, in part, just how many older Americans actually achieve on the three-legged stool in retirement.
