The solution for our economic woes as a nation is based on the concept that "Health care IS the economy, Stupid!" I don't mean anyone in particular is stupid, but rather that the collective "we" are really (really) stupid. The truth is that our for-profit health insurance industry makes our oil barons and military industrial giants look like chump changers. The amount of savings we could reap by fixing our energy and war problems combined ...total less than half what we would save by fixing health coverage alone.
Here's a hint for Massachusetts, Arnold, Blagoivich, McCain and Obama: feeding the beast that is the (biggest part by far of our) problem (namely the profit-driven health insurance industry) more taxpayer financed corporate welfare dollars...will not solve the problem.
It is possible to save our economy, Social Security and Medicare for the Baby Boomers and generations beyond...if only we will. The cost of not doing so is economic and social collapse, even if Wall Street were not having its own problems. But because it is, fixing health care and doing it right is even MORE imperative now than ever. Here's the solution that is just sitting there waiting to be understood and realized, but our leaders are so blind they will not see.
Nationalize health insurance instead of socializing Wall Street. Harvard doctors Woolhandler and Himmelstein crunched some very reliable numbers and determined we would collectively save at least $350 Billion per year AFTER everyone is covered reliably and comprehensively from cradle to grave, simply by cutting out one very expensive, unnecessary, amoral and greedy health insurance middleman from the equation, and utilizing efficiencies of scale. This is common business sense. No viable business would allow 31% to be cut off the top before any goods or services could be delivered, and "we the people's" health coverage business should not allow it either.
No one would have to sue anyone any more over who has to pay medical bills (because they would all be paid), plus we would all for the first time have total freedom of choice among independent care providers (because we would all have the same coverage plan), plus the transparency we need but now lack to see who is paying how much for what. We need to be united into the largest protective pool possible to achieve the best coverage at the best price. We would also save at least 101,000 innocent American lives per year (according to a study published in Health Affairs) plus prevent millions of unnecessary disablings, bankruptcies and terrorized American families.
Jobs would boom and the playing field of competition would be leveled. Savings for American families would trickle up and finance capital markets from the bottom up instead of from the top down. The capital created would be filtered through many families' hands, and therefore end up much cleaner. Every hand that every dollar touches as it trickles up the economic ladder on its way back to the top only adds value to those dollars. The more hands those dollars touch, and the more lives they affect, the better for everyone collectively. Every dollar that we print to prop up irresponsible, greedy bankers and creditors does the opposite (devalues the dollar). The business investments that would follow from Trickle Up economics would be based on real demand instead of guesswork. Henry Ford could have received financing for his fabulous idea, but if ordinary people did not have the where-with-all to buy his product, Ford's financiers would never have been repaid and he would have found himself in the same position that our automobile industry finds itself in today....too much supply and not enough demand.
The savings for American families created by fixing health coverage would be spent on real goods and services (rather than worthless bureaucracy and paperwork). That in turn would grease our economic wheels so fast it would make our heads as well as our economic gears spin. We tried trickle down, supply side economic theories (given them more than fair chance in fact) but they have failed. It's time for a bold new approach, and no where does the American public need more bailing out than it does on skyrocketing health coverage costs.
Why not give trickle up, demand side economic theory a chance for a REAL change? It just might "Bring Back Balance". The trickle up economic approach worked to end the last Great Depression and keep our economy healthy for a long time, at least until we forgot the lessons we had learned.
Our over-riding economic problem is the mal-distribution of our wealth. That indicator hasn't been this bad since just before the last Great Depression. Wall Street greed sucked our economy dry, and the greed of the health insurance industry is doing the same. If we want to balance the budget and restore health care justice for our people, we need to start looking at the leeches (health insurers are the biggest ones left by far) because the turnips (people) are being bled dry.
The biggest myth perpetrated on the American public is that reforming health coverage would cost more money. The truth is that we are paying too much and getting too little NOW. We could easily pay less and get more. All we lack is the leadership.