You’d expect to hear Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House, railing against fraud, waste and abuse. But this time he’s not talking about them in government. His target is health care.

“There is more than enough money in the system,” Mr. Gingrich said, as quoted by The Washington Post. “We just are not spending it well.”

Mr. Gingrich founded the Center for Health Transformation, which promotes “health-based health reform.” One of its goals is replacing paper records with electronic ones.

The center says on its Web site that 40 percent of questionable Medicaid claims in New York state may be related to fraud, waste or abuse — costing as much as $18 billion a year. Fraud would be easy to trace and stop with electronic record-keeping, the center says.

It wants every American to have an electronic health record within four years — costing perhaps $15 billion a year but saving at least $80 billion a year.

Coincidentally, Medicaid funding during the national economic crisis is a priority for Democratic President-elect Barack Obama, according to Time magazine.

He thinks Washington should help states pay Medicaid bills. And he also wants to fund a massive technology upgrade to replace paper-based health records.

Mr. Gingrich spoke warmly of Mr. Obama’s selection of Tom Daschle to be secretary of health and human services. The former Senate majority leader is a proven leader committed to achieving “quality, effective care” through health-care reform, Mr. Gingrich said.

So we have bipartisan agreement that health-care reform is not a secondary issue to be shoved aside in the economic emergency, but is part of the solution.

One in four Americans say their families have had problems paying for medical care during the past year, according to the National Coalition on Health Care. Easing those concerns would bolster consumers’ confidence as well as their ability to regain control of their financial lives.