Mark Pinsley, the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania Senate District 16, wants the power to stop harmful private equity deals before they happen. When investors try to buy a hospital, a nursing home or a large amount of housing, his plan would require public disclosure, community hearings and state approval, so a deal that would cut services or drive up costs could be blocked.
In short:
- Pinsley proposes a Private Equity Accountability Act: public disclosure, community hearings, and state review before these deals go through.
- He supports House Bill 1250, which would limit lot rent increases for people who own manufactured homes. It passed the House in 2025 and has been stuck in a Senate committee ever since.
How the private equity playbook works
Private equity firms have bought hospitals, nursing homes, doctors’ offices, mobile home parks and apartment buildings across Pennsylvania. Pinsley describes the playbook this way:
Buy the facility, take all the cash, load it with debt, cut staff, raise prices, charge management fees, sell off the real estate, and move on.
Right now, none of this requires a public hearing or even telling the community. People usually find out when a service closes or the rent jumps.
What happened to Crozer Health
This already happened in Delaware County.
Prospect Medical Holdings — then majority-owned by the private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners — took over Crozer Health in 2016. In 2019, it sold the hospitals’ buildings and then rented them back, so the hospitals no longer owned the ground they stood on. A U.S. Senate investigation found the company paid out about $645 million to its owners during the private equity years.
Then the closures came. Two hospitals closed in 2022. The company went bankrupt in January 2025. The state and a local foundation put up $40 million to keep the rest open while looking for a buyer. None came. In spring 2025, Crozer closed for good, and 2,651 people lost their jobs. The city of Chester was left without a hospital. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star · WHYY · PA Department of Labor and Industry, WARN notices)
The money left first. The hospitals closed afterward. The time to step in was 2016 and 2019, when the deals were made — not 2025, when the closure notice went out.
What Pinsley’s Private Equity Accountability Act would do
When private equity or other investors try to buy a hospital, nursing home, major medical practice, or a large amount of housing, the Act would require:
- Public disclosure of the deal.
- Community hearings before health services change hands or are cut.
- Review by the Attorney General and, for hospitals and nursing homes, approval by the Department of Health.
Gov. Josh Shapiro called for limits on private equity ownership of hospitals after Crozer closed. Pinsley would pass that law and apply it to nursing homes and housing too.
Manufactured homes: paying a mortgage and rent at the same time
People who live in manufactured home communities (sometimes called mobile home parks) usually own their homes but rent the land underneath them. So many of them pay twice a month: a mortgage on the home, and “lot rent” on the land. About 56,000 Pennsylvania households live this way. (The Center Square, September 2026)
Moving a manufactured home can cost thousands of dollars, so most people can’t leave. As private equity firms and other big investors buy these communities, lot rents have shot up. Pennsylvania law limits how often lot rent can go up, but not how much.
It’s happening in District 16. At Red Maple Acres in Lower Macungie Township, one resident’s lot rent went from $440 to $819 in about two years after the community was sold — up 86%. (The Morning Call, September 2025) At Mayo Park in Trexlertown, a resident’s family says lot rents doubled in three years. (The Center Square) Many residents are retirees, veterans and people with disabilities on fixed incomes. Some say they now choose between lot rent, food and medicine.
House Bill 1250 would help. It ties yearly lot rent increases to inflation, while still letting owners raise rent more to cover major repairs or unusual costs. It passed the Pennsylvania House 144–59 in June 2025, with 42 Republicans voting yes. Gov. Shapiro has said he will sign it. (HB 1250 · House Roll Call 379 · The Center Square)
Then it stalled. Since June 2025, the bill has sat in the Senate Urban Affairs and Housing Committee without a vote. (In June 2026 the committee moved a different bill on these communities, but not this one.) Jarrett Coleman is a member of that committee. In September 2025, he told The Morning Call he was studying the Senate version of the bill, and raised concerns about court challenges and evictions. More than a year later, it still hasn’t had a vote. (The Morning Call)
Pinsley says he would vote for it. “If I’m elected in November, I will vote to stop this price-gouging. On that, you have my word.” (Real Talk with Mark Pinsley video) HB 1250 isn’t a hard rent cap, he points out — owners can still cover real costs. “I’m for the people, not the powerful,” he told The Center Square.
Why Pinsley knows what oversight looks like
As Lehigh County Controller, Pinsley’s office audits the county’s own nursing home, Cedarbrook. In 2020, it found more than $450,000 in unpaid private-pay bills likely to be written off. It went back in 2021 and found the problems hadn’t been fixed. It went back again in 2023 and found real progress on billing and collections. (2020 audit · 2021 · 2023)
That’s what public oversight looks like: someone checks, publishes the results, and comes back to make sure things changed. When a nursing home is owned through a chain of private equity companies, nobody does that.
Common questions
“Shouldn’t the government stay out of private business deals?” These aren’t ordinary deals. When it’s the only hospital in the area, or the nursing home where your mother lives, the whole community lives with the result.
“Won’t the market punish bad owners?” Only if people have somewhere else to go. In much of Pennsylvania there’s one hospital and one nursing home. And people who own manufactured homes can’t afford to move them.
“Won’t this scare away investors?” Investors who plan to stay and do right by a community can handle basic transparency. The ones who object are describing their business model.
District 16 covers parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties. The general election is November 3, 2026.
