Just a couple of whiffs in the air, but I'm thinking that the need for corporate profits, and in some cases survival, will drive a government solution for universal healthcare.
There is now talk about General Motors heading for bankruptcy. Who'd a thunk it? The main reason? (besides that they can't compete with the Japanese) Their costs for employee healthcare. And GM is surely not alone.
With zero expertise in this matter, I wonder whether a case for universal healthcare could be made in terms of boosting corporate profits. Is it possible that a corporate tax significantly less than current healthcare costs could fund it if applied across a large enough swath of corporate America? I don't know.
A different angle on this comes from Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under Clinton. In a commentary tonight on Market Place, Reich calls for decoupling employment from healthcare. He describes a $125 billion "tax deduction" in the form of employer-based healthcare, which could be used to fund a universal healthcare plan.
Help! I couldn't stand the irony - Corporate America bailing us out of the healthcare problem. It's almost as good as thinking that Big Oil will probably be the ones that bail us out of our dependence on oil by becoming Big Alternative Energy.