Jun. 11, 2025
HARRISBURG — Rep. Kathy L. Rapp (R-Warren/Crawford/Forest), Republican chair of the House Health Committee, voted against a bill to increase government involvement in health care transactions.
House Bill 1460 would give the Office of Attorney General the power to determine whether health care mergers and acquisitions can occur in Pennsylvania.
“While I thank the sponsor of this bill for working to protect health care access in the Commonwealth, I fear the end product may result in limiting health care access even further,” Rapp said. “I have no doubt that there are bad actors in the private equity space that use Pennsylvania health care systems to make a quick buck, then leave residents in the lurch. But we heard from stakeholders in health care who are concerned health care systems won’t be able to grow without those private equity investments. Plus, in some cases, private equity has been used to keep hospitals open.
“Private equity has been used by independent facilities to stay independent. Limiting private equity and making it more difficult to obtain it will only steer more independent facilities to seek acquisition by larger health systems that have the financial resources to go through a burdensome review process from the attorney general and a possible court hearing to obtain approval.
“The real issue we have to tackle is why our hospitals, especially in rural Pennsylvania, have been in financial crisis for years, long before we faced the problems we’re experiencing with private equity. I believe it’s because of the uncontrolled rise of health care costs due to government mandates and overregulation. A bill that increases government regulation is not the solution to the problem of overregulation.”
House Bill 1460 passed the House with a vote of 121-82. It now heads to the Senate for consideration.
Earlier this week, Rapp had two resolutions approved unanimously from the House Health Committee.
House Resolution 249 would designate the week of Sept. 21-28, 2025, as "Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Research and Awareness Week" in Pennsylvania to increase awareness and understanding of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis to support improved diagnosis and treatment.
House Resolution 251 would recognize Oct. 24, 2025, as “World Polio Day” in Pennsylvania.
Both resolutions now head to the full House for consideration.
Representative Kathy Rapp
65th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Jake Gillespie
717.772.9834
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