What happens when the highly vulnerable — older, sick, injured, and debilitated people — get left in the hands of profit-obsessed private enterprises operating under woefully lax regulatory oversight? Big messes abound, as news organizations have reported after taking deep dives into the workings of the “hustle” of for-profit hospice programs, or the chronic staffing shortages that prevail at far too many private nursing homes.
Sure, this is a hectic time of the year, and it can be a challenge to carve out the time to pore over the painstaking reporting of fine journalists who race to make public their major investigations before the year’s end (including to qualify for major professional prizes).
Still, for anyone concerned about destructive failures in the U.S. health care system, how they blow up over time, and how they get ignored until they become crises, the reports by ProPublica, the New Yorker, and USA Today are important reading.