Did President Bush in his State of the Union speech last night just give more businesses a green light to drop health insurance coverage for employees?

Despite a glowing economy, more and more Americans can not afford health insurance, don't have access to it at work or have made the decision to go without it, presumably to pay other bills like rent and fuel. The number has risen from 40 million in 2000 to about 46.5 million in 2005 according to the government's own figures. Like Katrina, which wasn't even mentioned in the President's speech, the figures show a contradictory chasm between those who are benefiting from this economy and the growing numbers of those who are not.

The problem of the uninsured is well documented and its impact on the rest of society is sobering: loss of decent paying manufacturing jobs, high numbers of personal bankruptcies, and children and adults who rely on emergency hospital care --- health care at its lowest efficiency and highest price.

Last night, Bush gave more attention to health care than in any time in his presidency mentioning the words 14 times, according to the New York Times. In 2006, he mentioned health care three times and in 2005 only once.

His solution: more tax breaks. Tax breaks and consumer choice are constant Republican themes. The two are supposed to work together in keeping businesses competitive, while lowering the costs of goods and services for consumers.

But like his medical savings accounts, the approach will work for a sliver of the work force. Under his proposal, families would not pay income or payroll taxes on $15,000 of their income. Single Americans would avoid the taxes on $7,500 of their income.

And like the medical savings accounts, it assumes most workers have the money in hand. It assumes that most single Americans do not have dependents --- a partner, a child or a sick family member. And it assumes that competition drives prices down, something that has rarely shown itself to be true in health care.

But more than anything else, the Bush proposal is another wink-nod to many businesses that are already eliminating or reducing employee benefits in order to fit a changing definition of profitability for our rosy economy.