How’s this for a stimulus — let’s give Medicare to everyone

By Andy Everman for MLive.com—

Often we hear about how education (especially higher education) is crucial for economic development and job creation.

Rarely do we get any credible specifics about how this actually works, even from our knowledgeable colleges and universities. In fact, can our colleges and universities demonstrate that they truly are sending out a significant percentage of students who are starting small businesses — the heart and soul of economic development these days — and creating good jobs?

Students and parents cannot afford continual, well-above-inflation tuition and fees increases, and we know that our colleges and universities certainly want to use more existing, as well as new, money for higher education. So what do we do?

Since the departing Bush Administration and the incoming Obama Administration are all about stimulus packages, what about this kind of stimulus: single-payer national health care — see U.S. Rep. John Conyers’ bill, H.R. 676, which now has over 70 supporters.

Yes, that’s right, Medicare for everyone! Do our senior citizens think they are being “socialized” to death?

Big business and small business, unions and nurses, around 50 percent of doctors, and a clear majority of Americans are now ready and are calling for a single-payer health care system which already exists in all the advanced democratic countries).

The cost savings to our businesses and colleges/universities would immediately improve their financial situation, as well as improve our global competitiveness. The automobile industry would get significant relief without any loans or bail-outs. Why our colleges/universities might even be able to decrease tuition and fees a bit, given the financial savings windfall!

By removing the gouging middleman, namely the costly health insurance industry, by ending for-profit health care, and by significantly cutting administrative costs, we can wring the waste and inefficiency out of our present failing system and save up to $300 billion a year.

Accordingly, Americans need not fear huge tax increases to cover such a national health-care system. At the present time, 5 percent to 15 percent annual health-care cost increases (not found in any other country) are unsustainable.

These exorbitant health-care cost increases prevent wage and salary increases that at least keep up with inflation. Fifty percent of Americans in bankruptcy or foreclosure say health-care debt is their primary problem. Forty percent of households today are financially stressed by out-of-pocket health-care expenses.

This is where Americans need real relief, as opposed to sending us checks in the mail or more tax cuts that do not jump start the economy and only put a huge debt burden on future generations.

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