Nothing like waking up to a voice on the radio asking, "Can we really afford something like universal health care with everything else that's going on in the economy?" Particularly when the answer is a resounding "Yes!"

 Marketplace's economics correspondent Chris Farrell said spending on health coverage is a stimulus for the economy, particularly as people lose their insurance along with their jobs. He helpfully noted that it's also the "right" thing to do to help "Main Street," which is apparently what we now call the American public.

As a stimulus package for the economy, partly, it's the right thing to do. Rather than this notion that we can't do it, we can't afford it, an economic crisis provides the opportunity for two real benefits. It will be part of the fiscal stimulus, and it will help out those families. Think about families when they lose their job. You know what? You can't time when your kids get sick. And there's all kinds of costs. And what is it—half of all bankruptcies revolve around medical illness? We have lots of uninsured as it is already. So this would really help people out. But it's not one of these notions that, well, we need people to shop more. No, we don't need people to shop more. But people need economic security, they need to feel better, they need to not have to worry about their children getting sick. This is a good fiscal stimulus package—embrace it and go big.

After all, after the $700 billion bailout, the price tag for covering everyone (Marketplace cited $160 billion, estimate, we think $140 billion should do it) doesn't seem so big anymore...

The more likely scenario (we hope) is that the stimulus package will include meaningful steps toward a sensible overhaul of our health coverage and care delivery systems, including money for Medicaid and perhaps other health and social services needed to get us through these rough times. Health reform is about as complex as it comes, and it requires planning and consensus. We don't expect to see a new and improved U.S. health care system rolled out intact in a stimulus bill six weeks from now—although come to think of it, that might have been what we were dreaming about when Marketplace woke us up.