John Nichols: Single-Payer Health Care Would Stimulate Economy

[marmar]

from The Nation:



Single-Payer Health Care Would Stimulate Economy
posted by John Nichols on 01/14/2009 @ 08:58am



There is an unhealthy tendency on the part of politicians and journalists to see discussions about economic recovery and health care reform as separate debates.

In fact, one of the most important steps on the road to economic recovery – or, more precisely, toward a new, responsible and sustainable prosperity – involves the fundamental reform this country's broken health care system.

But it must be the right reform: the establishment of a national single-payer style healthcare reform system by expanding the existing Medicare system to cover all Americans. According to a new "Single Payer/Medicare for All: An Economic Stimulus Plan for the Nation" study released today by the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association, such a reform would provide a major stimulus for the U.S. economy by creating 2.6 million new jobs and infusing $317 billion in new business and public revenues into the economy. This reform would, according to the study, add $100 billion in wages to the currently sputtering U.S. economy.

Indeed, notes the NNOC/CAN, the number of jobs created by a single-payer system, expanding and upgrading Medicare to cover everyone, parallels almost exactly the total job loss in 2008. "These dramatic new findings document for the first time that a single payer system could not only solve our healthcare crisis, but also substantially contribute to putting America back to work and assisting the economic recovery," says NNOC/CAN c o-president Geri Jenkins, RN. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/396919/single_payer_health_care_would_stimulate_economy?rel=hp_blogs_box

[LaPera]

1. Absolutely - without a doubt!!

[rurallib]

2. people need to take this and innundate their local papers with LTTEs

and call the call in shows to get this message out.