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If there is to be one lasting lesson that we should learn from the current economic disaster , let it be that the health care industry in the United States is ill . Three of the most iconic corporations in our history, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, are on the verge of liquidation not because of stock market funny business but rather because they can’t stay solvent while meeting their responsibilities towards their employees’ health coverage obligations .

In fact, for each vehicle that GM sells, over $2000 goes directly to the fund that the automakers have established to deal with the ever-expanding expenses of providing health coverage to their employees , past and present . And you probably thought it was all about subprime mortgages .

As I type this, at the end of 2008 , the medical care industry is the single largest industry in the country’s economy, as measured as a percentage of the GDP , or Gross Domestic Product ; in fact, medical care represents roughly 16% of our GDP, more than military , more than automotive, more than IT , more than any other industry you can think of. And it’s not close.

Any scenario that will revolutionize medical care must make an allowance for the creation of new industry jobs, which will have an impact on the entire economy, as more citizens who find themselves unemployed or under-employed right now can be trained to work the good, lucrative health care jobs of tomorrow ; such moves would have long-lasting impact not just on the whole economy and the individual persons who will take on those better-paying jobs , but also on the treasury and our country’s balance sheet , as those new jobs will bring in tax revenue that will help lower our staggering mind-boggling deficit and pay down the national debt.

And this is where universal health coverage comes into play . When you consider that over 46 million Americans lack health coverage of any kind today, it is easy to see that by bringing these people into the system will only grow the size of the health care industry, an industry which, as I pointed out earlier, is almost exclusively domestic. By giving these countless people a method to acquire their own health coverage , we can help create those better paying jobs , while improving the quality of life of the currently uninsured , and eliminating the wasteful expenses associated with caring for the ill poor by hospital emergency rooms (the doctors of last resort for millions) and other wastefulness.

———-For more, visit Health Insurance In-depth

———-Jonathan Krakowski, the author, writes weekly for Auto Insurance In-Depth and Life Insurance In-Depth.