The Growing Economic Case for Universal Medical Insurance
If there should be one lasting lesson that we should commit to memory from the current economic mess , let it be that the health care industry in the United States is not well . Three of the most iconic companies in our history, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, are on the verge of liquidation not because of Wall Street monkey business but rather because they can’t remain solvent while meeting their duty towards their employees’ health care expenses .
In fact, for every auto that GM builds, over $2000 goes directly to the trust that the carmakers have created to deal with the growing costs of providing health insurance to their workers , past and present . And you just thought it was all about subprime loans .
As I type this, at the beginning of 2009 , the medical care industry is the single biggest industry in the country’s economy, as measured as a percentage of the GDP , or Gross National Product ; in fact, medical care represents roughly 16% of our GDP, more than military , more than automotive, more than information technology , more than any other industry you can think of. And it’s not close.
Any policy that will change medical care must make an allowance for the development of new industry jobs, which will have an impact on the whole economy, as more citizens who find themselves unemployed or under-employed today can be retrained to work the good, lucrative health care jobs of tomorrow ; such action would have long-lasting impact not only on the broad economy and the individual men and women who will take on those better-paying jobs , but also on the treasury and our nation’s budget , as those new jobs will generate tax revenue that will help reduce our astounding deficit and lower the national debt.
And this is where universal health coverage comes into play . When you consider that over 46 million Americans lack medical insurance of any type today, it is easy to see that by bringing these people into the system will only increase the size of the health care industry, an industry which, as I pointed out earlier, is almost exclusively domestic. By creating a way for these millions of people to pay for their own health care , we can help expand those more lucrative jobs , while improving the quality of life of those who are uninsured , and eliminating the wasteful spending associated with caring for the ill poor by hospital emergency rooms (the caregivers of last resort for millions) and other wastefulness.———-The author, Jonathan Krakowski, writes a regular column for Auto Insurance In-Depth and Life Insurance In-Depth.
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