Not Everything in America Has to Make a Profit
Why the profit motive doesn't work for every industry
When your business model depends on a steady stream of sick people, better health care at lower costs isn't your concern. That's why real health care reform depends on having a public option to keep private, for-profit health insurance companies and hospitals honest.
Bill Maher, comedian and host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, has a great post about why not everything we do in America has to be in the interest of making profits, like providing health care coverage. Here's an excerpt:
"And finally, there's health care. It wasn't that long ago that when a kid broke his leg playing stickball, his parents took him to the local Catholic hospital, the nun put a thermometer in his mouth, the doctor slapped some plaster on his ankle and you were done. The bill was $1.50, plus you got to keep the thermometer.
"But like everything else that's good and noble in life, some Wall Street wizard decided that hospitals could be big business, so now they're run by some bean counters in a corporate plaza in Charlotte. In the U.S. today, three giant for-profit conglomerates own close to 600 hospitals and other health care facilities. They're not hospitals anymore; they're Jiffy Lubes with bedpans. America's largest hospital chain, HCA, was founded by the family of Bill Frist, who perfectly represents the Republican attitude toward health care: it's not a right, it's a racket. The more people who get sick and need medicine, the higher their profit margins. Which is why they're always pushing the Jell-O.
"Because medicine is now for-profit we have things like "recision," where insurance companies hire people to figure out ways to deny you coverage when you get sick, even though you've been paying into your plan for years."