The Growing Financial Case for Health Care Reform
If there is to be one lasting message that we should from the current economic mess , let it be that the health care industry in the United States is in need of help . Three of the most famous corporations in our history, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, are on the verge of bankruptcy not because of stock market monkey business but rather because they can’t stay solvent while meeting their duty towards their employees’ medical insurance obligations .
In fact, for each car or truck that GM builds, over $2000 goes straight to the trust that the carmakers have created to deal with the ever-expanding costs of providing health insurance to their workers , past and present . And you just thought it was all about subprime mortgages .
As I write this, at the beginning of 2009 , the health care industry is the single largest industry in the country’s economy, as measured as a percentage of the GDP , or Gross Domestic Product ; in fact, health care represents roughly 16% of our GDP, more than defense , more than automotive, more than information technology , more than any other industry you can think of. And it’s not close.
Any proposal that will alter health care must make an allowance for the expansion of new industry jobs, which will have an impact on the entire economy, as more people who find themselves unemployed or under-employed at the moment can be trained to work the good, lucrative health care jobs of the future ; such moves would have long-lasting impact not only on the whole economy and the individual people who will take on those better-paying positions , but also on the treasury and our country’s budget , as those new jobs will bring in tax revenue that will help reduce our astounding deficit and lower the national debt.
And this is where universal health coverage comes into action . When you realize that over 46 million Americans lackhealth coverage of any kind today, it is easy to see that by bringing these people into the system will only grow the scope of the health care industry, an industry which, as I pointed out earlier, is almost exclusively domestic. By giving these countless people a method to acquire their own health insurance , we can help create those more lucrative positions , while improving the quality of life of the currently uninsured, and getting rid of the wasteful spending associated with caring for the sick poor by hospital emergency rooms (the doctors of last resort for millions) and other inefficiencies.———-The author, Jonathan Krakowski, writes a weekly column for Auto Insurance In-Depth and Life Insurance In-Depth .
