He promised to do that during the election! They are related in many ways. For example, GM cars cost several hundred dollars more each because the cost of employee healthcare is in the car. Not the case with imports.

Considering healthcare costs are a leading cause of people becoming bankrupt, they are very much intertwined. People who are not destitute from ridiculous healthcare costs are more likely to pay mortgages and invest in other things.

healthcare costs are a direct expense for an employer or an employee

I'm not sure. The health care industry seems to be one of the only profitable, job creating, tax base contributing industries in the country right now.

We have the most expensive health care system in the world, paid for by the federal government, the states, and companies. Reducing the cost would free up money for all three to either spend elsewhere or pass on to the taxpayers/customers. As Jackson says, the cost of health care is one of the things bringing GM down.

Well, if people don't have jobs or money you die in the States if you get sick. Unlike all the European countries you don't have a national health service which guarantees, (some places for free) health care. What a scary place to live. It's one of those things that lots of Americans don't believe is possible, a bit like British cops not carrying guns. However, very hard to be the richest country in the world when you have to fork out cash loads on keeping the population alive as part their rights as a citizen, probably why noone has ever managed to bring it in over there. Tantamount to communism is it not?

I don't know. Healthy happy Americans = Healthy happy tax payers? --- Real question is, what does bailing out wall street, and the US auto manufacturers have to do with saving the economy? We all know what they're doing with it. Paying huge bonuses and then filing for bankruptcy. Both GM and AIG are just about to do so. AIG is even claiming the bailout wasn't enough and they need more. AIG even claims they're not making enough to pay back the loan.. What a mess.

Farmers would have gotten a lot more of my now deceased grandmothers money if she didn't have to spend so much of it on medication. I know there are many more in the same boat. GM might have gotten some business from the hubby and I this tax season if we didn't have medical bills hanging over our heads. Had to pay for them and keep the junker this year...

Th sum it up very shortly: The health care system is prohibitively expensive for many people who either cannot afford insurance and get stuck with huge bills, or who can afford insurance, but only at the expense of many other things. In an economic crisis, these costs would be even more prohibitively expensive...and many people may become completely broke due to health costs, or simply avoid health care altogether and therefore put their health in great risk. Fixing the health care system is necessary for the well-being of low/middle income American citizens - a very large number and still growing. Health Care needs to be more about actually "caring" and less about die-hard business.

The only thing I can think of is the exorbitant cost of COBRA insurance when someone is laid off due to the poor economy. Fix unemployment and the entire issue of healthcare is a moot point in my opinion.

First, if youÅ•e against reforming healthcare youÅ•e a selfish pig and your voice is totally irrelevant at this point. That said right now 1 out of every 6 dollars out of the US budget is spent on healthcare cost. Within 20 years it will jump to 1 in 3 dollars. We as a nation can no longer afford this. The only people who will be able to afford healthcare will be the fabulously wealthy and nobody else...period. I just went to a dentist with no insurance and they wanted $165 per tooth to pull them out which is not only obscene itÅ› criminal in my view. I have commited no crimes yet I have been forced to contemplate committing crime just to stop the pain and I certainly am not alone and as a tax payer I DEMAND better treatment from my government. If you want to stand in the way I sure I could find plenty of people more than willing to put your neck in the guilotine and put an end to this criminal, selfish behavior on your part. How does that suit you? If I'm going to be locked up for a crime then by God you damned well better have a good reason and murder is a good enough reason. My mother died due to high healthcare cost and don´t think for a second I don´t see that as murder or criminal behavior an the least.

I heard the insurance per employee costs more than the steel per car....Yet how much steel do they actually put incars any more?The auto unions do seem to have too much.The unions in the south don`t have much,but alot better than working for a non union company.Atleast you have Soon rights.HEALTHcare costs are out of control.Costing businesses,taxpayers,and government too much.Who are some of the biggest lobbys? Doctors and pharmacitules.MEDS. they say cost so high from research,yet so many have to be recalled.The bigger the business the bigger the GREED?

Well I can tell you what they may have to do with each other, but I do not think that Obama tampering with the current healthcare system will fix the economy. In the most recent unemployment report the only two industries/work fields that have not yet experienced major job loss in the country are those who work for the government and those who work for insurance companies. Health Insurance companies provide millions of jobs in the U.S. at an mean pay of about 59,000 dollars (ish). If the government were to bring about Universal Health-care, we would lose those jobs as well thus hurting the economy much more (not to mention, supposing a 50% income tax - which is the average income tax for countries enacting Universal Health-care - the national government itself would lose around 2.2 billion dollars in taxes a year that would be needed to pay for the Universal Health-care). Such a loss of jobs and the loss of those people spending their money in our economy would only further cripple it (the benefits people would receive from Health-care they previously paid "too much" for would only balance this effect if everyone in the world had health-care - which they don't). Because of this (and several other reasons) I personally hope that Obama is not successful in bringing about Universal Health-care and will do what I can to ensure that that happens. If he is insistent with it and my wishes aren't met, I do hope that he will at least wait until the economy is back on its feet so it doesn't have to be too heavily burdened from the aforementioned setback.

I don't think they have anything to do with each other, but sticking "economic crisis" onto anything the politicians want done is just a way to get what they want. Rahm Emanuel Said, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." Hillary Clinton said, "Never waste a good crisis" They will use that to do things the people didn't want before, such as taking over private business, and telling them how much they can earn, regulating our home thermostats, forcing us into government medicine, etc. Keep people scared and they will go along with anything.

When most people loose their jobs they loose their insurance. By providing affordable insurance to people it will create lots of new high paying jobs in the medical sector. Just as a side note, I have a heart condition which remains untreated because I have to choose between providing for my family or buying overpriced insurance. Myself and many others like me could and some will die because health insurance is not affordable. This is a no-brainer. Our country needs health reform.

Everyother industrialised nation in the world has 'fixed' healthcare. Such would put us onto an even keel when it comes to competition.

I'd like them to explain to all of us what they have in common. When you sign a contract you read it carefully first. I assume we all understand this. How can we sign off on a Health Insurance Reform bill without knowing the specifics in detail? Are we suppose to be morons? Are we suppose to trust the most corrupt group of people in America. I don't trust any Politician from either party.

A healthy and content nation is far more productive.

People with medical problems spend a lot of their income on health care, therefore they do not put that money into other sectors of the economy. Reduced health care costs frees up more income that can be spent on other things, improving the economy (or so I think.)

We put more money per capita than any other nation in the world, and we're ranks in the mid to low 30's in treatment. Imagine the capital freed if we could increase our dollar value in health care.

There not related un-less he wants to make them related AND Communise us that is a great tool for such a change.