Employers should promote health-care reform

[rusty charly]

The government would serve as the prime negotiator with providers, hospitals, clinics and drug companies. You would keep your present doctor and health-care support team.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061001/BUSINESS/610010357/1003

Want more than basic coverage? Your employer would be free to offer additional benefits. You may even be required to buy a basic health plan the same way that states require auto-insurance coverage if you own a car. And those who couldn't afford policies would be given a tax credit.

A single-payer plan would not only help entire companies, make the economy more productive and stimulate small-business growth, it would save lives.

More than 150,000 people could be spared, the Commonwealth study estimates, by making the U.S. system more efficient through a single-payer model. That could amount to national economic gains of $130 billion a year just in covering the uninsured, who tend to delay essential care and end up in high-cost emergency rooms.

It's time to get this show on the road. It needn't originate in Motor City, but given the U.S. auto industry's malaise, it wouldn't be a bad place to start.