5 Least Profitable Industries in the US

4. Healthcare Support Services

Gross margin: 14.72%

Net margin: 2.01%

While other areas in healthcare, such as pharmaceutical companies have really high margins comparatively, the healthcare support services industry has seen really low margins, in a country where privatized healthcare has resulted in most people being unable to afford basic healthcare without insurance. The biggest company in this sector is Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH). One of the impacts of declining margins is the closure of healthcare facilities, which includes 10 hospitals in Ohio closing their labor and delivery services in the past one year, as operation costs continued to increase.