The Noble Yield: Appreciating Financial Investors in Healthcare

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It is March 30, 2025, and on this day yearly, we recognize the many Doctors that care for patients in and out of hospitals - Thank you for your leadership and expertise in healthcare! #HappyDoctorsDay. Nonetheless, I do want to share about the financial aspects of healthcare.

In a world ruled by returns, where quarterly reports speak louder than intentions, financial investors in healthcare stand at a rare intersection of profit and purpose. Unlike the allure of tech stocks or the velocity of venture capital in artificial intelligence, healthcare investing often offers a steadier, more modest financial climb—but it also delivers something far richer: impact. Healing. Humanity.

A Lower Return, A Higher Calling

According to McKinsey & Company, the average return on invested capital (ROIC) in U.S. healthcare services hovers around 5–7%—a figure that often pales in comparison to the 10–12% averages seen in other sectors like technology, consumer goods, or financial services. The S&P 500, a bellwether for broad market performance, has delivered an annualized return of approximately 10.5% over the past 50 years.

For the discerning investor, these numbers tell a clear story: healthcare investment is rarely the fastest road to riches. Yet, it remains one of the most necessary roads for society. In for-profit healthcare, the dividends may not always dazzle Wall Street, but they resound in the quiet dignity of lives extended, pain relieved, and communities served.

The Quiet Nobility of Risk

Every dollar invested in healthcare infrastructure, clinics, urgent care centers, rehabilitation facilities, and telehealth innovation is a declaration: that even in a system often criticized for its inefficiencies, healing remains a worthwhile endeavor.

While headlines often celebrate unicorn IPOs and crypto windfalls, the healthcare investor sows in different soil. Here, the harvest includes not just capital appreciation, but social contribution. This kind of investor bears not only the weight of financial risk—but also the invisible burden of moral accountability. There’s a nobility in funding ventilators instead of virtual reality, in backing nurse staffing models instead of social media algorithms.

A Hidden Dividend: Taxes and Contribution

For-profit healthcare institutions—whether multi-hospital systems or private outpatient clinics—pay substantial taxes that indirectly benefit local infrastructure, public health programs, education, and transportation. Unlike their nonprofit counterparts, for-profit healthcare organizations are taxable entities, often contributing millions in corporate, property, and payroll taxes annually.

In 2022 alone, for-profit hospitals paid an estimated $6.8 billion in state and local taxes in the U.S., according to the Federation of American Hospitals. These contributions support the very public ecosystems that sustain health equity and population wellness.

So while their nonprofit siblings often wear the moral halo, for-profit healthcare entities—through their investors—should not be dismissed. Their role is not merely transactional but transformational. They fuel healthcare innovation, bridge gaps in access, and help create a dynamic workforce of medical professionals.

More Than ROI: Return on Humanity

To invest in healthcare is to believe that human flourishing is worth the margin compression. It is to accept that impact may sometimes be felt more than it is measured. It is to plant in soil where the blooms may be patients walking again, seniors aging with dignity, or communities gaining access to preventative care.

So to the financial investors—venture capitalists funding AI diagnostics, private equity partners turning around distressed hospitals, physician-investors risking savings to launch clinics—we at HealthcareLOT extend a salute.

You may not always see the returns you hope for. But you are building legacies that compound beyond spreadsheets—in lives, in love, and in the sacred pursuit of care.

You are not just investing. You are uplifting.

Best wishes,

Lana Bamiro, DrPH, FACHE