Why are Yale New Haven and Hartford Health advertising when everyone knows there are a limited number of hospitals and where to find them? Most people visit a nearby hospital or, when incapacitated, directed to one by first responders. Further restrictions are forced by insurance plans that direct choice within relatively small geographic areas. So, why advertise the obvious when it has no medical benefit?

Alas, both organizations are piling it on with new buildouts everywhere, each rebranding along the way. And, when longstanding local medical offices empty in favor of those new buildings, host towns are left with costly property vacancies.

All the excessive overhead infuriates me as I struggle to pay a $1,137.13 imaging bill for a big toe. Why so expensive? While the imaging technology has been around for decades, the impressive, multi-story building housing it was erected in Mystic a little more than a year ago by Hartford Healthcare. Go figure.

Doctors, nurses, and technicians are not the problem. The costs of advertising, branding, and construction are. There should be a moratorium slapped on all of it. Especially as we patients are being forced to pay for it one diagnosis, prescription, and procedure at a time.

Brian Sayles

Waterford