Wednesday night, President Barack Obama, D-Illinois, will try to right the U.S.’s ship of state in a speech before a joint session of Congress on health care.
The administration’s initial strategy - to lay low, and let Congress fill-in the details - has been a major disappointment for backers of health care reform, as it let opponents structure the debate on the issue. The result was gross distortion of the impact of health care reform legislation, confusion, and a mockery of the public discussion process called town hall ‘debates.’
Tonight, Obama has to re-energize his plan by outlining his goals, which will likely include: 1) a plan to subsidize care for those uninsured who can’t afford to pay for insurance, 2) a strategy to lower costs throughout the system, especially Medicare and Medicaid, 3) a viable way to pay for the costs of the new health care spending likely to ensue.
What’s Wall Street hoping for? The street doesn’t want another government spending program, but neither does it want to see a continuance of the current untenable health care system - one where 47 million Americans are uninsured and where millions of uninsured seek health care at hospital emergency rooms at $1,000 an hour and up, at the taxpayer’s expense. For the latter reason alone, the current system is fiscally and economically irrational and untenable.
Is a tax increase likely to be part of President Obama’s proposal? Probably, and while it’s not preferred by investors, they would probably accept that over another idea that was making the rounds Wednesday, a transaction tax on each stock trade. There was chatter in the Concrete Canyon that the fee could raise as much $50-70 billion per year to pay for health care. The street is hoping it can avoid the tax, and it’s also hoping that Obama offers a plan that lowers per person health care costs in the U.S. - perhaps the biggest factor in achieving the goal of universal health insurance.
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