when I grow up I want to be in business

Human decency demands that I be a compassionate person, whereas business only demands that I be a profitable one.

Paul Krugman wrote an interesting piece about John Kerry's health plan for the Houston Chronicle. You can read it yourself here:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/2671864

But what struck me about it was the following statement he makes:

"Catastrophic health expenses, which can easily drive a family into bankruptcy, fall into the same category [of random misfortune like earthquakes]. Yet private insurers try hard, and often successfully, to avoid covering such expenses. (That’s not a moral condemnation; they are, after all, in business.)"

Medicine, civil law, criminal justice are professions that profit from the misfortune of others. In these professions, profit is justified by the help provided to people who are suffering. Insurance profits from balancing our fear of misfortune with the probability of actual misfortune and promises to help us in the event that we have need.

When members of such professions increase their profits with no commensurate increase (or an actual decrease) in the aid that they provide to those in need, they are deserving of all moral condemnation that the righteous can muster.