National Nurses United

NewsBriefs:JanFeb 3 2/28/09 12:56 AM Page 9 Study Shows How Single-Payer Healthcare Can Revive U.S. Economy NATIONAL hat if the United States could ensure everyone gets access to healthcare, and we could revive the economy at the same time? Implementing a single-payer system for the country would accomplish both these goals, and more, finds a recent study by the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy, the research arm of CNA/NNOC. The first-of-its-kind study, titled "SinglePayer/Medicare for All: An Economic Stimulus Plan for the Nation," concluded that establishing a single-payer system, which is essentially like improving and expanding Medicare to cover every person in the country, would create 2.6 million new jobs, infuse $317 billion in new business and public revenues, and add another $100 billion in wages to the U.S. economy. "This should serve as a real wake-up call for America," said Geri Jenkins, an RN and member of the CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents. "We've now documented that singlepayer could not only solve our healthcare crisis, but play a major role in putting our country back to work." Don DeMoro, the study's author, said that healthcare already plays such a dominant force in the U.S. economy, both through direct W JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2009 and indirect expenditures. Every one dollar spent on healthcare creates nearly three additional dollars in the economy, according to his analysis. Adopting a single-payer system would stimulate the economy and "create an immense engine that would help drive our national economy for decades to come." The study also found that expanding Medicare to cover all residents can be done at a relatively affordable price, and for far less than the government has already spent bailing out financial and insurance companies such as CitiGroup and AIG. An additional $63 billion on top of the $2.1 trillion the country is already spending directly on healthcare could ensure that everyone could accesshealthcare andnofamilies would go bankrupt in seeking medical care. And much of the increase in spending would be covered by the additional tax revenues generated by the system. Another positive of expanding Medicare to all is that most of the jobs created under such a system are for actual providers of care, W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G not in positions that help administer private insurance. "RNs always knew that providing healthcare to everyone was the morally right thing to do, but now we also have research that shows that it's the smart thing to do if we want to get our economy back on track," said Malinda Markowitz, RN and another member of the CNA/NNOC Council of Presidents. "I call this a two-fer." —staff report REGISTERED NURSE 9

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