Health care

I am not intimately familiar with the newly-elected health care reform but it seems to me the U.S is moving closer towards socialism, which the country used to sneeze at prior to the economic crisis.

As an outsider, I am more concerned about the potential costs of the bill adding to the country's swelling deficit. Mr. Obama said the reform would not blow up the national coffers. Doubtful. The health care industry accounts for 16% of the country's GDP, even the slightest change could cause a material effect . Not to mention money spent on lobbying, debating, filibustering only to unconvincingly secure a marginal win over Republicans.

I don't like the argument of "long-term savings come later" from the beginning. For one, potential savings derived from the reform are built on the assumption that the economy is recovering as planned; Not likely and you know it. For the other, taking out future loans to pay for today's expenses? No thanks, not after the bust of the credit bubble.

Granted, it's Obama's biggest victory yet. But outside the states, not everyone is happy. Take China, for instance, which currently holds American debts roughly equivalent of the costs of the health care bill, or somewhere to the tune of $900biilions, That's on top of trillions of debts the U.S has amassed over the years,. Can the country's creditors, and I don't just mean China but also Japan, Germany and France expect their loans to be repaid in the foreseeable future?

Of course I am happy for the 32m Americans now that they are covered. In fact, I listened to BBC the other day and a black woman with pre-existing medical conditions was denied of insurance, she had to struggle through the past decade since she lost her job in 2001, now the passage of the health care bill had renewed her outlook on life and she was confident to find work again. That sounds great. But who will eventually pick up the bill? Probably not this woman.

Now that Mr. Obama has scored big time and that's not even half-way into his presidency. His next move is likely to be another reform. This time in the financial industry. Then what next? trade imbalances reform? Global warming reform? whatever his next move, Mr Obama is highly skilled at pushing ahead populist policies. But I think what he now needs to pay more attention to is the country's astronomical levels of debts. Otherwise he might very well run out of money for the next reform.