``I understand that UPMC is a business, but if we're in business to make money, then stop claiming nonprofit status, or give our communities what they need: We need help.``

``We have to keep going back and forth to Atlanta. And I just need to stay focused on what I have to do next.``

``The fight for my healthcare has robbed me of the strength to care for my health``

``It's very important to us to keep these doctors. They've basically, in our minds, saved her life.``

``We're not just gonna lay down and die and let them get away with it.``

``Having our residents being used as pawns in this way for their profit is intolerable, but it's also in the most kind of compromising situation because they're messing with people's lives.``

``How do you go up against someone who employs so many people or brings in so much money? And that's really how they hold our government hostage.``

``Our tax dollars helped both these institutions grow and for them to say, 'you can't get care because you have an insurance card that we don't like...' is wrong.``

``The accountability has actually shrunk. That's the big problem that we have to solve.``

``I should not be in medical debt to my employer``

``I can't sit idly by and watch our seniors and children and workers suffer because of corporate greed.``

``It's time to stand up for consumers and force hospital systems to prioritize patient care.``

``Everybody has a right to healthcare. We cannot make healthcare a privilege.``

``We're ready to hear what you all need so that we can go back to Harrisburg and we can advocate for what's right.``

``Romoff says it was losing money, but the money it lost was like pocket change next to the salaries of Romoff and his assistant.``

“Whenever we're talking about political power and political influence, we cannot ignore the way our extremely broken campaign finance system affects decision making.``

``It's difficult for me to accept what a lot of hospitals want you to believe is meeting their nonprofit hospital community benefit.``

``We found that Sutter prevented insurance companies from negotiating with it under anything other than all or nothing conditions causing disruptions and higher prices for patients``

``Healthcare is something that's bought and sold in our society. Our bodies are the ATMs. Our misfortunes, our illness, our pain are the ATMs.``

``When you just have one dominant health system, they're going to be able to charge higher prices.``

``We’ve got to start talking about regulating providers' prices. And it's sort of a funny thing to get an economist to say.``

``Hospital consolidation is really the untold story of our rising healthcare costs.``

``As more physicians have become employees, there are higher rates of burnout``

``If you compare the charity that for-profit hospitals are providing to that which not-for-profit hospitals are providing, it's not a whole lot less.``

``I think there's more that could be done to make sure that nonprofits are held accountable and are benefitting their communities``

``What will come out of this is a hospital industry that uses the coronavirus pandemic as a reason to do the things they otherwise would like to do.``

``The question is, which way will we go as a society? Will we just say, okay, more monopolies? Or will we say, those institutions owe it to us to be ready to take care of us?``

``Physicians go to school because of a calling. And then they find out they're not allowed to use it to the advantage of the people that they're trying to help.``

``Healthcare in general isn't usually the most sexy or exciting beat, but as a reporter, I am constantly looking for stories that have major impact on my readers.``

``Hospital leaders, basically, feel that they're doing mergers so that they can control costs and they can control all of the external forces that are causing their costs to increase.``