Community organizers and advocates must build powerful networks to preserve healthcare as a community service, not just a vehicle for financial extraction and investor returns.
Over the past several decades, hospitals, local healthcare facilities, physician practices, nursing homes, and other critical sources of care that communities depend on have increasingly been purchased by large corporations, private equity firms and outside investors. These buyers are primarily accountable to shareholders, not to the patients and communities they serve. The result is financialization, where investor returns and profit are prioritized over patient care, especially for communities of color and other historically marginalized groups.
Leaders who are working inside and outside of healthcare discussed how to counter the ongoing financialization of healthcare settings and services.
Participants learned to better:
- Understand how financial actors and investor incentives have overtaken critical segments of healthcare systems and how that reproduces racial inequities.
- Foster collaboration among providers, healthcare advocates, policymakers, and communities – including labor, economic justice, and racial justice organizations.
- Develop solutions that safeguard patient-centered care, community priorities, and outcomes over financial returns.
- Build power among local organizations and leaders to advance community-focused priorities and align with organizing efforts in their states.
Convened by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Intersection brings together people who work inside and outside of healthcare to build anti-racist health systems. It’s a place where community and justice advocates, healthcare providers, and public health experts can share their experiences, provide feedback on how to tackle challenges, and talk about what’s working.
Speakers
Moderator
Anton Gunn
REACH Beyond Solutions