Profiting From Illness and Injury

For most of my adult life I have felt there was something intrinsically wrong with the health care "industry" in America, despite always having had virtually unlimited access to the very best health care this country has to offer. The whole idea of a profit driven health care "industry" I find morally offensive. Certainly health care workers deserve to earn a very good living. Certainly hospitals must be able to provide for their staff, equipment, mortgage payments, capital improvements, lights, water, landscaping, etc., etc., etc. But when hospitals, HMO's, and insurance companies are beholden to stockholders to show a profit, when investors buy shares of a hospital corporation or medical insurance provider hoping for a return on their investment, essentially this means investors are hoping to profit from illness and injury.

Profiting from illness and injury? Profiting from the crisis, struggles and even deaths of real people? To be very clear, this is not commentary regarding earning a living helping people through their challenges, but rather commentary on the concept of investing in the health challenges of human beings. The immorality of THAT type of investment is of epic proportions.

Christopher Dinnes
S/S Cape May
Norfolk, VA