Pittsburgh_Patrika_October_2015

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The Pittsburgh Patrika, Vol, 21, No. 1, October 2015The Quarterly Magazine (Jan, Apr, Jul & Oct) for the Indian DiasporaVol. 21 No. 1 www.pittsburghpatrika.com October 2015Phone/Fax: (724) 327 0953 e-mail: ThePatrika@aol.comMonopoly in Healthcare Industry not Good forConsumers or for Our Region’s VitalityBy Kollengode S. VenkataramanMonopoly, or even duopoly for that matter, in any industry, includingthe healthcare industry, in any region is bad for consumers, citizens andelected officials. Here are examples of what monopoly or near-monopolydid to our own region in the recent past:The Rise and Fall of the Steel Industry: From the late 19th centuryto the past mid-20th century, the steel industry was the backbone of ourregion’s economy. Pittsburgh was known as the “World Capital of SteelMaking.” The voluminous tome titled “Making, Shaping and Treating ofSteel” published by the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Co. became a biblefor metallurgists, just as “Gray’s Anatomy” is for medical students. At itspeak, 90,000 people worked here in the steel industry. Nearly 40% of thecoal, a critical component in steel making, mined in the entire nation, wasproduced around the Pittsburgh region. Our football team is still calledthe Steelers, even decades after the industry imploded.Naturally, the industry’s tycoons had a big influence not only on thelocal economy, but also on the elected officials in municipal, county, state,and even federal governments. After all, steel was critical for the defense,transportation, and canned food industries, and for roads and bridges. Thesteel executives pretty much did whatever they could get away with. Thearchives of our regional history are chockfull of details on this.In the 1970s the American steel industry collapsed by the hubris of theindustry and its trade union leaders, compounded by a pitiful failure toupgrade steelmaking technology while Japan and Europe invested heavilyin making better quality steel at lower cost. The economy of our regionwent into a horrible tailspin. It took over 20 years — from the mid-1970sto mid-1990s — for our region to readjust and reinvent itself with newavenues in healthcare, higher education and financial services.But the old glory days of this region were gone forever. Pittsburgh’spopulation plummeted from 600,000 at its peak to 300,000 today. Al-4
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