Pittsburgh City Paper

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 1:52pm on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Hospitals and universities seem to have become the steel mills of the 21st century, according to an article written on November 26, 2009 by Chris Potter of Pittsburgh's City Paper:

"Back in the old days, area residents used to decry the avarice of steel companies. On the rainy afternoon of Nov. 19, though, some 200 people were on the streets, denouncing the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

I guess it's true: Hospitals and universities really are the steel mills of the 21st century.

Actually, that might be unfair -- to the steel mills. US Steel's Edgar Thomson works still churns night and day along Braddock's river bank. UPMC, though, is shuttering Braddock's century-old hospital just 13 years after acquiring it, supposedly because it doesn't get enough use. Meanwhile, UPMC plans to open a new facility closer to Monroeville, where it can better compete for affluent customers with a hospital owned by its rival, West Penn Allegheny Health System.

"It's not health care any more; it's wealth care," protester Annete Baldwin told me while holding a sign that read, "We are here to 'continue the conversation.'"

The full story:
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A72125