On the drive home yesterday I heard an NPR story from a Princeton economist who made the point that healthcare as an industry is probably one of the best to use as a economic stimulus engine.  The interview can be heard here. I think he raises a good point that, unlike many industries, the full economic benefit of healthcare as an industry stays in country.  By comparison, if you invest in the manufacturing sector through individual tax rebate checks, then some percentage of that stimulus goes off shore since manufacturing is done all over the world.  He argues that this is the wrong time to reform U.S. healthcare because that would reduce the GDP.

I buy his argument that healthcare is a unique industry to consider as an engine for economic stimulus.

I disagree that we shouldn't reform it or, at the very least, part of it.  If for no other reason than the economic inefficiency of the U.S. system where we don't have effective health information exchanges.   How many times do you have to provide the same information to healthcare providers that they then re-key into their system?  How many times are duplicative tests done as you move from one doctor or specialist to another?  How unreliable are we as patients in reporting our medical history, much less our current prescriptions that we may be taking?

If for no other reason than providing the economic resources to expand the delivery of healthcare services to those who do not have coverage today, economic stimulus through more efficient and effective healthcare information 'Systems' is a national imperative.  Systems here is capitalized on purpose - meaning the linkage of all aspects of healthcare delivery into a single patient view that is confidential and comprehensive.  The technology is there, we're providing it in Canada as part of the Provincial Laboratory Information Solution (PLIS) and the interoperable Electronic Health Record (iEHR) system. Not to mention the National Health Service in the United Kingdom where we help link more than 40 million health records for national interoperability.

All that has been missing in the U.S. is the willpower to do it.  Perhaps this will change with the new administration who based on this article may be considering this very strategey