Economic Liberties Applauds Bicameral “Take Back Our Hospitals” Legislation

In response to Sen. Chris Murphy’s (D-CT) and Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon’s (D-PA-05) introduction of the Take Back Our Hospitals Act, which would effectively prohibit private-equity firms from owning hospitals and skilled nursing facilities, the American Economic Liberties Project put out the following statement.

“Private-equity ownership of healthcare facilities drives up prices, lowers wages, reduces access, and degrades patient care,” said Emma Freer, Senior Policy Analyst for Healthcare at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Economic Liberties is proud to endorse the Take Back Our Hospitals Act, which would protect patients, employer health plan sponsors, and taxpayers from private-equity profiteering as the latest step towards breaking up Big Medicine.”

The Take Back Our Hospitals Act would prohibit hospitals and skilled nursing facilities that are owned by a private-equity firm from receiving Medicare reimbursements. Extensive research shows that private-equity ownership in health care is associated with higher costs, lower wages, and, perhaps most importantly, worse patient outcomes, including significantly higher mortality.

Economic Liberties has advocated for this kind of structural separation – to ensure insurers, middlemen, and other corporate entities, like private-equity firms, cannot own or control healthcare providers – since 2024, in both white papers and the popular press. In early 2025, Economic Liberties launched the Break Up Big Medicine initiative to bring together independent healthcare professionals, patient advocates, employers, and policy experts who support structural reforms across the healthcare industry. This coalition has activated for in-person events across the country, from Austin to New Orleans, and to support complementary legislation, including:

• The bipartisan Break Up Big Medicine Act by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), which would prohibit insurers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and wholesale drug distributors from owning or controlling providers.
• The Patients Over Profits Act by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. Val Hoyle (D-OR-04), which would prohibit insurers from owning certain Medicare providers.
• The bipartisan Patients Before Monopolies Act, by Senators Warren and Hawley and Reps. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA-04) and Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01), which would prohibit PBMs from owning pharmacies.
• The Medicines for the People Act, by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12), which would break Big Pharma’s monopoly by creating a public option for pharmaceutical research and development.

Learn more about the Break Up Big Medicine initiative here.