Drive through any town in Michigan, from Monroe to the suburbs of Grand Rapids to the Upper Peninsula, and you’ll hear the same conversation at kitchen tables: Everything is just too expensive. We feel it at the checkout counter, in our monthly rent checks and even when we try to sign our kids up for daycare or summer camp.
We are told these rising prices are just the natural result of a messy economy, but there is a more calculated force at work. Behind the scenes, a handful of billionaires and private equity firms are quietly buying up the foundational pieces of our lives, transforming essential services into their personal profit machines.
Private equity firms have become increasingly influential in Michigan’s economy. These firms work on a simple, often ruthless, blueprint: Buy a company, load it with debt, slash costs to the bone, and sell it for a massive profit a few years later. The “costs” being slashed are often the people and safety standards we rely on.
In the context of hospitals ― a key private equity target ― this cost-cutting can mean reduced services, worse health outcomes and even increased deaths. Here in Michigan, nine hospitals are owned by private equity, including LifePoint Health, which has operated Bell Hospital in Ishpeming since 2013. Multiple LifePoint facilities ranked among the worst hospitals in their states in 2024. In August 2025, employees at UP Health System-Marquette, owned by LifePoint, held a one-day practice strike to bring attention to these issues. Union leaders said staffing shortages were their primary concern, noting that the hospital was not adequately prepared to handle the influx of patients from recently closed UP facilities.
It’s not just hospitals. Private equity is buying single-family homes in droves, outbidding Michigan families and driving up home prices and rents. Private equity-owned Yes! Communities is one of the largest owners of manufactured home parks in the country, and about a quarter of its lots are in Michigan. Yes! owns 64 parks with about 21,500 total home sites in Michigan. For seniors on fixed incomes, the company has become a nightmare.
In Rochester Hills, a 71-year-old woman saw her rent hike until it consumed over half her monthly income. In Chesterfield, residents saw monthly costs nearly double, jumping from $700 to $1,500. When global firms buy the land under a family’s mobile home, they gain the leverage to squeeze them until they have nothing left.
This same pattern is crushing Michiganians in other sectors ― childcare, manufacturing jobs, sports and even special needs support services. Wealth isn’t being created for Michigan families; it is being extracted from us. And the scheme is working: Many of the billionaires in the U.S. owe their fortunes directly to the private equity industry.
The result is a staggering power imbalance. While Michigan families decide which bills to skip, the ultra-rich are using their extreme wealth to protect a system that rewards their greed. A new poll by Impact Research shows that the majority of voters understand that billionaires are driving the affordability crisis.
This is part of a larger pattern where unimaginably rich individuals wield their wealth to manipulate our economy and democracy to benefit themselves. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can choose an economy that prioritizes working people. Policymakers must address this crisis by enacting structural reforms that shift power from the ultra-wealthy back to working families.
Closing the carried interest tax loophole would limit one of the key ways private equity firms lower their tax bills. The recently reintroduced millionaires’ surtax is another strong proposal. Taxing wealth, thereby making this small group of billionaires just a little less wealthy, would begin to chip away at their outsized power. Lawmakers must also increase regulatory oversight of private equity acquisitions to prevent the monopolization of our healthcare and housing.
These aren’t radical ideas — they are common sense. Polling shows that 77% of voters nationwide, including a majority of Republicans and independents, support raising taxes on billionaires.
Michigan was built by generations who worked hard and were able to afford a decent life. It’s time we stopped letting billionaires buy up that dream and sell it back to us at a premium. It’s time for us to rein in extreme wealth and put Michigan working families first.
Andy Levin is a former Congressman from Michigan.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Billionaires, private equity are driving up costs in Michigan | Opinion
Reporting by Andy Levine / The Detroit News
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