In rural America, many people are so poorly served by our health care system that, with the nearest hospital so far away, they have to buy “helicopter insurance” in case, in an emergency, they need to get medical attention quickly. Of course, many can’t afford helicopter insurance — and they may end up getting stuck with the bills, which are often not covered by standard health insurance plans. A New York Times investigation last week illuminated this monstrous capitalist mess: it’s not unusual for patients to receive horrifically high surprise bills for “air ambulances.”

The Times interviewed a coronavirus patient, a middle-aged woman still coping with the “brain fog” many suffer in the aftermath of the disease — and facing a helicopter bill of $52,112. There was legislation in Congress this year, sponsored by many progressive Democrats and even supported by the White House, to curb the practice of “surprise billing,” but the proposed bill stalled indefinitely after dark money blanketed the airwaves with ads in opposition. A report published last week by the Brookings Institution (a DC policy think tank) shows that private equity firms dominate the air ambulance industry. They’re also heavily invested in other medical services that profit from springing unexpected bills upon the hapless health care consumer.

In other words, working-class sick people are suffering, and the private equity industry, profiting obscenely from our society’s dysfunction, hopes to keep it that way so that men like this can keep adding billions to their net worth.