Profit is fine, but obscene profit is just immoral

John Jordan, Henderson

Monday, Jan. 11, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

Regarding Richard McCord’s Wednesday letter to the editor, headlined “Profit is a good and necessary motivational tool”:

Mr. McCord contends that profits motivate companies, allowing health care insurance companies to maximize efficient use of resources, invent new products and offer better services to improve our lives, create jobs and simulate tax revenue. He doesn’t address the fact that health insurance companies write policies in legalese, which assures the company’s advantage over the patient other than where required by government regulations to protect the patient’s rights.

Health insurance companies have increased premiums exponentially, and there have been increases in costs from other segments of the medical industry — doctors, hospitals, medical technical services and pharmaceutical companies. Most opponents of health care reform fail to review facts of the past several decades regarding the inflationary costs of health care.

I am not against profit but against obscene profits hoarded by the captains of business, financial institutions and industry — and health care has contributed to the current U.S. economic downturn.

Medical bills have been one of the major causes of personal bankruptcies. Health insurance companies have lobbied against current health care reform to keep conditions just as they have been for Americans needing health care.