The whole world is in recession. But the United States is the only wealthy country in which the economic catastrophe will also be a health care catastrophe — in which millions of people will lose their health insurance along with their jobs, and therefore lose access to essential care.It has always baffled me that those who claim to support economic freedom are satisfied with the reality that most people are tied to their employers if they want health care for their families. Now that middle-class families are losing health care benefits, perhaps the wisdom of breaking that link will become more apparent to more people.
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The bottom line, then, is that this is no time to let campaign promises of guaranteed health care be quietly forgotten. It is, instead, a time to put the push for universal care front and center. Health care now!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Economic Crisis Will Cause Health Crisis
Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist, published a thought-provoking piece about the economic crisis and its effect on urgency of universal health care. I'll quote the first and last paragraphs, but you really should read the whole article to understand the excellent analysis:
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3 comments:
There is an excellent article in the New Yorker magazine of January 26 written by a Massachusetts physician about how to structure a healthcare plan for the United States. Apparently over 97% of the people in Massachusetts are now covered.
This is the plan that was developed back when Gov. Romney was attempting to govern rather than just run for president and it appears to be quite a success and may hold the key to how the United States can actually get from our present garbage heap to a more rational universal health care plan.
It is certainly worth checking out.
Obama and the Senate should take a look at the stimulating effects of fixing the health care problem in a major way, now. Getting companies out of the health care business would dramatically reduce the cost of labor. Health care costs for the consumer have dramatically risen over the last 20 years while cost of most other goods and services have dramatically dropped.
Too bad we can't get past the fear mongering and make this the true bi-partisan effort.
Obama should spend a significant portion of his kids' college fund on a cheap wig and go to bed with Jeff Roe, Calvin Williford and other Republicans in order to be bi-partisan like Mike Sanders.
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