KKR's $10 billion deal to take Envision Healthcare private, along with Bloomberg's deep dive on the billing tactics of air ambulances, exemplifies private equity firms' appetite for buying health care providers that wield a lot of market power.
The big picture: These companies are a leading source of surprise medical bills, which infuriate patients but are profitable for private equity owners. Emergency rooms and ambulances aren't real marketplaces — consumers can't stop and shop for the best price in the middle of an emergency.
Stryker has made an offer to buy Boston Scientific, a deal that would create one of the largest medical device manufacturers in the world, the Wall Street Journal reports. Boston Scientific's stock shot up on the news, giving it a market cap of about $48 billion.
The big picture: It's still too early to say whether Stryker's takeover aspirations will lead to a final deal, the WSJ said. But a consolidation would give considerably more pricing power to companies that create many widely used devices, like pacemakers and hip surgery implants.
The past decade's health care wars have pushed Republicans to the right, squeezing out moderates who see some acceptable role for the federal government.
Why it matters: More health care wars are coming, and the parties are only moving further away from each other. By demonizing so many policy ideas as "Obamacare-lite," the GOP has left itself with fewer policy alternatives and less room to compromise.
Most of the discussion of the Trump administration's decision not to defend the Affordable Care Act — and to urge the courts to throw out its protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions — has focused on what happens to the individual insurance market. But the political impact may be even greater.
Why it matters: Protections for people with pre-existing conditions are hugely popular, and the administration may have handed Democrats their strongest health care weapon yet — because now they can make the case that the administration has gone to court to take away protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions.
