Saving like there's no tomorrow

That's what Americans' seem to be doing:

Americans'’ personal savings rate dipped into negative territory in 2005, something that hasn'’t happened since the Great Depression. Consumers depleted their savings to finance the purchases of cars and other big-ticket items.

The Commerce Department reported Monday that the savings rate fell into negative territory at minus 0.5 percent, meaning that Americans not only spent all of their after-tax income last year but had to dip into previous savings or increase borrowing.

The savings rate has been negative for an entire year only twice before - in 1932 and 1933 - two years when the country was struggling to cope with the Great Depression, a time of massive business failures and job layoffs.

In that case, let's propose a health care program that pushes the burden onto the worker and costs more out of pocket for them! As Ezra points out here, HSAs don't work if people don't save money in them. So America's inability to save seems to bode poorly for the President's latest proposal. Well, his proposal might work, it's just that millions of Americans who think they have some sort of coverage will come up short when it comes time for medical care.