The Growing Big Picture Case for Medical Reform
If there is to be one lasting lesson that we should learn from the current economic situation , let it be that the medical care industry in the United States is not well . Three of the most famous corporations in our history, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, are on the verge of bankruptcy not because of stock market shenanigans but rather because they can no longer stay solvent while meeting their obligations towards their employees’ health care obligations .
In fact, for each auto that GM sells, over $2000 goes straight to the fund that the automakers have established to deal with the growing expenses of providing health coverage to their workers , past and present . And you just thought it was all about subprime mortgages .
As I write this, at the end of 2008 , the medical care industry is the single largest industry in the country’s economy, as measured as a percentage of the GNP , or Gross Domestic 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 proposition that will revolutionize medical care must make an allowance for the development of new industry jobs, which will have an impact on the entire economy, as more citizens who find themselves unemployed or under-employed at the moment can be retrained to work the good, better-paying medical care jobs of tomorrow ; such moves would have long-lasting impact not just on the whole economy and the individual persons who will take on those lucrative positions , but also on the treasury and our nation’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 medical coverage comes into play . When you consider that over 46 million Americans lack health coverage of any type today, it is easy to see that by bringing these people into the system will only grow the size of the medical 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 medical coverage , we can help expand those better paying positions , while improving the quality of life of the currently uninsured , and eliminating the wasteful expenses associated with caring for the ill poor by hospital emergency departments (the doctors of last resort for millions) and other wastefulness.
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The author, Jonathan Krakowski, writes a weekly column for Auto Insurance In-DepthandLife Insurance In-Depth .
