Is it possible to make an adequate profit, produce a good product and treat your employees fairly all at the same time? Not really — at least in the field of healthcare anyway, according to nervous special interest groups lobbying the Capitol.
Is the market economy, as President Obama seems to feel, a zero-sum game? As an unaffiliated voter, I’ve long thought if it’s true that conservatives hate the idea that someone somewhere is having too much fun, then it’s equally true that progressives hate the idea that someone somewhere is making too much money.
I hope that sort of mentality isn’t at the root of the opposition to legislation that would increase state oversight of hospital conversions from nonprofit to for-profit. To wit, some consumer and labor groups want an outright ban on for-profit hospitals in Connecticut.
At the center of the debate is the nonprofit Waterbury Hospital which, according to its CEO, has lost money in 9 of its last 10 years. Waterbury has an investor-owned national suitor, Tenet Healthcare, which seeks to acquire it and three other hospitals in the state.
Contributing op-ed columnist Terry Cowgill lives in Lakeville, blogs at ctdevilsadvocate.com and is news editor of The Berkshire Record in Great Barrington, Mass. Follow him on Twitter @terrycowgill.
See the complete story at CT News Junkie
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