Copyright 2009 Gannett Company, Inc.All Rights Reserved USA TODAY

4 March 2009 Wednesday FIRST EDITION

SECTION: EDIT; Pg 9A

LENGTH: 401 words


TITLE: No time for shyness; Opposing view: In setting health care today, the nation can solve its budget problems.

Signature: Elise Gould

Arguing that current budget deficits require a cautious approach to health care reform is like advising someone to work with a broken leg that now is not the time to buy crutches. The budget for the long term is a challenge to health challenge. Do not believe me - that Peter Orszag, who oversees the budget as a director of the Office of Management and Budget: "The path of accountability must run directly by health care."

The Congressional Budget Office states that, under current law, in 2050, the U.S. budget deficits averaged 9% of total national income, year after year. Leave health spending (Medicare and Medicaid, the largest) and the revenue that supports them, however, and the budget is essentially balanced. This is not a story of the inefficiency of government, which led to these trends is the total (public and private) of growth of health spending per capita.

Beyond this core of the calculation, there are more pressing economic needs, but to balance the budget 10, 20 or 30 years. The deepening recession applications for health reform.

In the past 13 months, the unemployment rate increased 2.7 percentage points, which corresponds to approximately 3 million people who lost their health insurance. At the end of this year, the number of uninsured people in the United States are easily 50 million people - well above the current 46 million. During a period of three years, the number of people who travel for a period without insurance is about twice, leaving them wide open for health and financial disaster.

Even the lucky ones with insurance, are at risk. Half of all bankruptcies occur filed for medical reasons, and the vast majority of these applicants had insurance at the onset of the disease. Remember, depending on the employer for your insurance means that if you lose your job to illness, you lose access to insurance that pays for the treatment of your disease, a horrible Catch-22 of 'current system.

In short, both long term and short-term budget to economic reasons, the demand for health care reform as soon as possible. President Obama is a realistic budget and a substantial down payment on reform, and health policy makers know that there is more money there to be rescued by the reform intelligently. Those who argue for delay really did not stand on the leg.

Elise Gould is director of health policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington.

LOAD-DATE: 4 March 2009

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