While the ability of working people to join together to increase their own power via unions or by class action lawsuits had been under attack for decades by corporations like Menards, by state laws dubbed “right to work,” and by the evisceration of federal bodies like the National Labor Relations Board, the business of health in America had become a race to consolidate: to get as big possible. Each industry within the healthcare octagon bulked up to combat every other industry in it.
