I'm eating a sandwich at home while I wait for the phones in our new campaign headquarters to get hooked up.
As I campaign for Congress here in the 8th District of Wisconsin, I hear a lot about the war in Iraq, Social Security, and jobs. But I hear far more about the skyrocketing cost of health insurance than any other issue. It's not just mill workers and small business owners who worry - it's dairy farmers and corporate executives too.
We all know that we spend more money to cover fewer people than any other developed country in the world. Our wasteful, inefficient health care system also hurts our economy - American businesses pay more than foreign competitors for health care. When I served as head of Wisconsin's economic development programs, I helped General Motors expand one of their plants in the state. GM is as concerned about the U.S. health care system as the average Democratic activist - every GM car comes with about $1500 in health care costs baked in, which hurts their ability to compete with other automakers. The inefficiency of our health care system helped lead to Toyota's recent decision to locate a new assembly plant in Ontario instead of in the U.S. I'd rather see those jobs here.
I think American businesses, both small and large, will ultimately help lead the way to a more efficient, more universal system than the one we have today. More than that, I think that business is an indispensable part of any reform coalition. It's going to take a lot of thinking and a lot of work to bring business groups on board, but economics and morality are fortunately on the same side in this debate.
How can we break the logjam on this issue in Washington now? (Aside from electing more Democrats....) And how can we broaden the coalition in favor of health care reform? I'd love to hear your thoughts.