Health Care Reform Needed As Part Of 'New New Deal' To Address U.S. Economic Problems, Opinion Piece States

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 30 Sep 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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The U.S. needs a "new New Deal: a systematic approach to the financial and economic problems of the U.S." that includes health care reform, Katrina vanden Huevel, editor of The Nation, and author Eric Schlosser write in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

Among other proposals, the U.S. needs "reconstruction, not only of America's physical infrastructure, but also of its society," the authors write, adding, "Today, close to 50 million Americans lack health insurance," and about 40% of the "nation's adult population is facing medical debts or having difficulty paying medical bills." The authors write, "A universal health care system would help American families, while cutting the nation's long-term health care costs."

In addition, the U.S. government needs reform, as in recent years "one federal agency after another has been handed over to the industries they were created to regulate," the authors write, adding, "It should come as no surprise that during the Bush administration the U.S. has witnessed the largest recall of contaminated beef in its history, thousands of deaths from unsafe prescription drugs and one of our worst financial meltdowns."

According to the authors, a "new New Deal wouldn't require another alphabet soup of federal agencies micromanaging every aspect of the economy" but "would simply ensure that federal spending is driven by the needs of every American." They conclude, "Anything less than this -- any proposal that rewards those who created the problem and penalizes those who can least afford it -- is a raw deal" (vanden Huevel/Schlosser, Wall Street Journal, 9/27).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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