Mergers and acquisitions among hospitals and health systems are on the rebound following a steep drop during the pandemic.

Most hospital and health system transactions take place between two health systems, such as a large system acquiring a smaller system or two large systems combining. But in October, venture capital (VC) giant General Catalyst announced its intent to purchase and operate a health system.

The unconventional deal got us at Healthcare Brew wondering: Who exactly is allowed to buy a health system? Turns out…everyone is.

“There [are] no legal restrictions on the nature or type of organization that buys a healthcare system or a hospital,” said Erin Fuse Brown, a law professor at Georgia State University.

Keep reading here.—MA

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Maia at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Maia for her number on Signal.

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California may be the latest (and most consequential) state to take steps toward implementing a universal, or government-run, health insurance system that guarantees coverage for all residents—but it’s not the first.

Lawmakers across the US—from traditionally blue states like Vermont and New York to more conservative states like Ohio and Iowa—have introduced dozens of single-payer proposals with varying levels of success in the last 10+ years. That includes 66 unique proposals across 21 states between 2010 and 2019 alone, according to a 2020 University of Pennsylvania Law Review analysis.

Although most of those bills have been “political long shots in their state legislatures,” authors Erin Fuse Brown and Elizabeth McCuskey noted in the report, “collectively, they do not appear to be purely symbolic or precatory” given the level of detail in the bills.

The continued interest in universal health insurance suggests that the policy issue is not going anywhere.

Keep reading here.—SY

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Shannon at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Shannon for her number on Signal.

Improving health equity—meaning that everyone can achieve their full health potential regardless of race, gender, ability, or zip code—will again top the list of New Year’s resolutions for hospital and health industry leaders in 2024, according to Deloitte’s Outlook for Health Equity released December 6.

The consulting and auditing firm, which surveyed more than 120 life science and health sector C-suite executives this fall, found that 80+% of respondents listed improved health equity among their top 10 goals for 2024. Almost half of the surveyed executives (who deal with equity-related decisions) said they plan to increase investments in that area in the new year, the report found.

Jay Bhatt, managing director of the Deloitte Health Equity Institute and the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, told Healthcare Brew that the outlook’s findings suggest health equity is “not just a moral imperative—it’s an economic imperative as well.”

Keep reading here.—SY

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Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: The infant death rate in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, was higher in 2021 than in 1971—and it has disproportionately affected Black babies. (KFF Health News)

Quote: “While we still hope that the Court ultimately rejects the state's request and does so quickly, in this case we fear that justice delayed will be justice denied.”—Molly Duane, an attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents a woman seeking an abortion that was temporarily blocked by the Texas Supreme Court on Friday (NPR)

Read: NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue performs an increasing number of lucrative bariatric surgeries, despite concerns that the hospital is reportedly operating on incarcerated people and “other inappropriate patients.” (the New York Times)

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