It's the Economy Stupid!

First, as layoffs at respected companies like Caterpillar, Pfizer, Home Depot, and Sprint Nextel continue to mount, there will obviously be higher unemployment rates. With increasing unemployment and with the economy not getting better anytime soon, more people will be unable to afford health care. This will affect the bottom-line for private insurance companies. These insurance companies will obviously fire their own employees to cut costs but if the unemployment rate surpasses 10% and more people stop paying their premiums to health insurance companies, how much more can insurance companies do to stay afloat?

Second, if Americans start managing their money so tightly that they cut down on their doctor visits and opt not to get certain drugs... the physicians and pharmaceutical companies will definitely take a financial hit.

Therefore, insurance companies, physicians, and pharmaceutical companies will be under pressure to make changes. The fact that health insurance in the U.S. is going up many times more than inflation and continue to go up, is not sustainable particularly in this economic climate. In the next four years, I do not see President Obama and state governments pushing for some sort of universal health insurance in this economy because their main focus will NOT be on having universal health care... but instead the focus will be on fixing the economy. However, just as Social Security came out of the Great Depression, just maybe this economic recession will produce major health reform.