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In the business world, fewer people are more well respected than Warren Buffett. His financial acumen is world renowned; when he speaks, the market listens. So how does he feel about healthcare reform, an issue that will have a major impact on the American economy?
He is in favor of some changes. According to Buffett, the crushing expense of group health insurance makes U.S. businesses less competitive in the global marketplace. Most other industrialized nations have at some form of socialized medicine, so their employers aren’t directly saddled with that burden. For a higher percentage of the nation’s GDP, American corporations get:
- fewer doctors per capita
- fewer nurses
- fewer hospital beds
By no means is he a total booster of the plan proposed by Democrats. Buffett believes that cost control should play a far greater role than it does in the current legislation. However, he thinks that passing the health insurance bill and fixing it later through amendments is preferable to doing nothing at all. In effect, he’s pretty much shilling for reconciliation.
