Why the Economic Crisis Shouldn't Mean Putting Off Health Care

By Monica Sanchez, Campaign for America's Future. Posted November 24, 2008.

Many have speculated that the health care reform promised during the election will have to be put off in the face of our severe economic crisis. Others warned that comprehensive reform will be impossible given the budget gaps and believe piece-meal reform is the most we can hope for. Still others believe the new president will not be able to tackle comprehensive health care reform in his first year for political reasons.

Many others believe, however, that the economic crisis makes health care reform all the more pressing. They believe it would help businesses and individuals.

Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winning economist, is on the side of taking action now:

"[S]tandard textbook economics says that it's O.K., in fact appropriate, to run temporary deficits in the face of a depressed economy. Meanwhile, one or two years of red ink, while it would add modestly to future federal interest expenses, shouldn't stand in the way of a health care plan that, even if quickly enacted into law, probably wouldn't take effect until 2011."

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary and advisor to Barack Obama, Lawrence Summers, has said the nation must tackle a variety of challenges that go beyond responding to the current financial crisis, including health care. He called for comprehensive health care reform to reduce the explosion of health care costs in the federal budget and to advance American competitiveness.

Gene Sperling, a Senior Fellow at the Campaign for American Progress Action Fund, testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Health on the benefits of addressing health care in a second economic stimulus package:

"We should be looking for win/wins: places where investments can both have a strong stimulative impact and be an important down payment on major long-term priorities. We should be looking for sweet spots that can both jumpstart jobs and jumpstart the future ... Health care initiatives can be a triple benefit in this context."

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