Re "Aid for a Terrorized Economy"
The New York Times
October 1, 2001
Letters
To the Editor:
(editorial, Sept. 28):
An additional indirect but major economic effect of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may be in health care policy. The economic slowdown that had dramatically increased unemployment in August has been accelerated by the attack to the point of inducing a full-fledged recession.
Most Americans who have health insurance get it through their work. When the slowdown began, 43 million Americans had no health insurance.
As unemployment grows, the families of laid-off workers will add many more millions to the ranks of the uninsured. Perhaps when we get to 50 million or 60 million uninsured, it may at last be politically acceptable to discuss universal health insurance.
JAMES J. FLORIO
Metuchen, N.J.
The writer was governor of New Jersey, 1990-94.
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