Dear Editor,
Why are Vermont’s prisons contracting with a company owned by a predatory, profit-seeking private equity firm to provide health care to the state’s incarcerated population? Wellpath, one of the country’s largest for-profit health care providers for prisons/correctional facilities, is owned by multibillion-dollar private equity firm, H.I.G Capital. Just last month, the company defaulted on a credit payment and it has now filed for bankruptcy.
Having studied private equity’s involvement in health care (like hospice), this is no surprise. Private equity firms have a playbook; they buy up companies, load them with debt, consolidate them and strip them down, and then leave them hollowed out or bankrupt within 5 to 10 years. The prison services sector has historically attracted interest from private equity because it has a consistent stream of government funding and is fragmented, which creates opportunities for consolidation.
Wellpath is responsible for the health and safety of hundreds of thousands of people in custody every day, but its unwavering motivation for profit leaves incarcerated people in Vermont with poor treatment. Now, a bankruptcy could force the state to find a whole new provider system. A 2019 investigation by CNN revealed that Wellpath has provided substandard care that has led to deaths and other serious outcomes that could have been avoided.
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Everyone – including incarcerated Vermonters – deserves access to quality health care. Private equity does not belong in health care for anyone.
Sincerely,
Emma Curchin
Domestic outreach and research assistant at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
(From East Montpelier, Vermont)
Read the story on VTDigger here: Emma Curchin: Why are Vermont prisons contracting with Wellpath in the first place?.