22 December—In defense of the medical insurance industry:

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Truth is, insurance is just a business like any other. And the business of business—the ultimate purpose of all business and industry—is the same: PROFIT. Nothing but PROFIT. Businesses aren’t there to do favors or to be nice to customers, except insofar as it enhances PROFIT. Regardless of the industry, regardless of the product, regardless of the business, the name of the game is PROFIT.

Paying claims eats into insurers’ bottom lines, thus reducing PROFIT. That’s why all insurers do everything they bloody well can to avoid paying claims. Tough, they reckon, if it compromises people’s health. Just so long as their bottom lines stay healthy.

It certainly would be nice if for-profit medical insurers didn’t put PROFIT over the health and lives of their customers. But don’t for one minute think that not-for-profit or government-run medical insurance is any better. Because the bottom line is always there for any number of reasons. And capitalism isn’t to blame . . .

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Several readers who aren’t acquainted with Waterbury landmarks and/or don’t read the Republican-American have wondered about the caption of the new photo in the sidebar, “In dolefully anticipated memoriam of the Republican-American as it has been.” Well, the picture is of the clock tower of the former Waterbury railroad station, home for seven decades of the Waterbury newspapers, with a statue of Father Michael McGivney (founder of the Knights of Columbus) in the foreground.

My brief letter in yesterday’s Republican-American should explain the caption:

“When the Republican-American announced that its iconic real estate on Meadow Street was to be redeveloped, I remarked to a neighbor that it was the beginning of the end, the death knell of yet another local newspaper.

“And, sure enough, now we read that the Republican-American and The Sunday Republican are likely to be sold—as early as next month!—to Hearst Connecticut Media.

“Hearst’s Connecticut publisher and Will Pape assure us that the Hearst accountants—sorry, Hearst Connecticut Media—won’t emasculate the institution the Pape family has built and overseen through thick and thin over generations and readers have come to rely on for actual interest in local and state happenings. As it is, Hearst has built a virtual monopoly in Litchfield County. And as we’ve seen with countless other local newspapers absorbed by chains, the Republican-American and Sunday Republican are likely to become two more of Hearst’s mere satellite newspapers with precious little local content and virtually no local staff, controlled from a remote central office whose primary interest is the bottom line.

“We’ll miss the Republican-American.

“Paul Mordecai Rosenberg
Litchfield”