If your body's a temple, then Partners Healthcare and Blue Cross are the moneychangers

I read that article yesterday morning, and kept waiting for the "gotcha". It never came.

As far as I can tell, the article can be summed up as follows:

1. Partners Healthcare managed to bargain hard enough to get Blue Cross to pay them higher rates.
2. But to do so, they had to promise to bargain really hard with other insurance companies too.
3. Partners is big now. And they have money. Lots of it.
4. Dirty bastards! How can you be rich at a time like this?
5. Insurance premiums went up lately.
6. Not only did Partners make more money - they saw more patients! And we know what that means.
7. Well, I thought you knew. I don't know.
8. If Partners made more money than other hospitals, that alone would be cause for suspicion. But here's the kicker: Other hospitals made less money than Partners during the same time period.
9. As we all know, medical mergers are bad because hospitals tend to shut down "duplicative" services. But this one's doubly bad, because Partners refused to shut down any services when they merged. Scumbags.
10. Don't let their massive profits fool you. Their consultants originally expected to make even more profits. The fact that they didn't just shows how.. well, that's how they get you, right?
11. But get this: they offer a pancreas transplant service, even though hardly anybody ever needs that. And, though the article doesn't say so explicitly, I'll bet they have no return business there. Another nail in the coffin.
12. The CEO is, in my own words, charming and intelligent. I don't trust guys like that.
13. Scientific researchers warned us that Partners might be able to "resist payers' demands for discounts". And that's exactly what happened! This is why insurance companies are sleeping in the streets.
14. Just ten years ago, Partners was close to being forced to close down entire wings. Now, they're building new ones with their ill-gotten profits. They're serving more people in more markets. Do I need to spell it out?
16. Here's a hint: Partners earns 2% profits, which is "modest compared with major teaching hospitals in other states." They scoop up all the money for their precious "programs" and "services" and "equipment", and they don't funnel a damned bit of it into lavish junkets and private jets. It's not right.
17. I will now quote the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, without mentioning that they seem to be funded by the insurance industry.

I kinda wonder who pushed for this article.

Since the Globe started their series, Partners has been taking out full-page ads in the Globe touting what a noble non-profit they are -- including an ad in today's paper.

The Globe ought to adopt a new business model: blanket every single page of the newspaper with a story about Partners Health Care so that Partners will dump more and more advertising dollars on the Globe to rebut the charges (albeit indirectly).