A hospital is the difference between life and death. It is where babies are born, where workers care for their neighbors, and where families turn during the worst moments of their lives.

Private equity firms should not get to buy these institutions, pull money out of them, and leave communities to deal with what remains.

Delaware County, Pennsylvania has already lived through the consequences.

Prospect Medical Holdings bought Crozer Health in 2016 while controlled by private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners. Crozer’s hospital properties were eventually sold, the system was burdened with more than $200 million in mortgage debt, and all 4 hospitals that once made up Crozer Health ultimately closed.

More than 3,000 health care workers lost their jobs. Delaware County lost its primary trauma center and only burn unit. A community of hundreds of thousands of people was left with far fewer places to turn to for care.

This is what corporate extraction looks like when the asset being stripped is a hospital.

And communities should not have to wait until another emergency room closes to demand something different.

States are already starting to act. Connecticut has restricted private equity control of hospitals, while Oregon, California, Washington, and Massachusetts have adopted stronger protections around corporate health care deals. Maine even enacted a temporary moratorium.

Hospitals should be accountable to patients, workers, and the communities that depend on them. State lawmakers have the power to protect that principle by keeping private equity firms from taking control of hospitals and putting essential health care at risk.

Tell state legislators to pass a moratorium on private equity purchases of hospitals and keep health care in the hands of the communities it serves.