Healthcare is a multiplier, not a consumer good

Adam Davidson tells a personal story about a relative who, with health care, could’ve continued his career. Without that healthcare, he ended up addicted and in jail. What the GOP doesn’t get about who pays for health care:

However, dividing health expenditures into these categories misses an important economic reality: health-care spending has a substantial impact on every other sort of economic activity.

Healthcare isn’t consumption, like buying a TV or going to a movie. It is a Keynesian multiplier. Every dollar the government spends on it means an individual or business can spend more than a dollar on something productive in GDP terms.

UPS and FedEx can’t exist without public roads. Southwest and United Airlines can’t exist without the FAA. Lockheed and Northrop can’t exist without the Air Force. Walmart and McDonald’s can’t exist without food stamps. Entrepreneurs find it harder to start without individual access to healthcare.

Yet Republicans are opposed to the existence of all of these. Perhaps business in America relies on more subsidies and government services than Republicans are willing to admit!

Adam Keys @therealadam