I had an unsettling conversation yesterday with someone in-the-know about consumer credit markets. Consumer credit covers everything from credit cards to auto and home equity loans. The expert expects that a deepening consumer credit crisis will loom until late in 2010.

Food and credit card debt are seen as a “serious problem” by 18% of Americans.

Just before this consumer-credit realization, I read the latest poll, Medicaid, SCHIP and Economic Downturn: Policy Challenges and Policy Responses, from the Kaiser Family Foundation which finds that, for every 1 percent increase in unemployment, there is a 1.1 million person rise in the number of uninsured Americans.

KFF forecasts that this would result in 1 million more people enrolling in Medicaid, including 600,000 children and 400,000 adults. This would increase states’ Medicaid spending by $1.4 billion — at the same time that tax revenues would fall by 3 to 4 percent due to declining workforce participation and worker tax payments.

The exacerbating economy for Everyday Man and Woman is already forcing hard choices for many. Look at the news that Costco is rationing rice (and other staple foodstuffs) based on the exponentially increasing cost of basic food. The worsening economy is hitting the kitchen table.

It’s being called the New Consumer Credit Paradigm, or the new standard of consumer frugality.

Health Populi’s Hot Points: What are the implications for personal health? I thought I’d take a stab at the New Consumer View on microeconomics in health, the analog to Budget Savvy Magazine’s table at the top of this post.

The rest of the world is girding up for the U.S. recession.

Health stakeholders in the U.S. must do the same.