Midwest health care start-ups attracted $780 million in investments in 2009, according to the BioEnterprise Midwest Health Care Venture Investment Report. While the number of companies winning investments last year — 156 — was about the same as in 2008, the dollar volume of the investments dropped 26 percent.

The state did finish the year strong with 12 companies attracting $90.7 million in the fourth quarter, a significant improvement from the previous quarter when only six companies raised $26.4 million. But that wasn’t enough to salvage a year marked by a weak economy and nervous investors choosing to focus on current portfolios instead of financing new deals.

U.S. health spending grew at the slowest rate on record in 2008, a period that stretches nearly 50 years, according to government statistics. Still, it devoured 16 percent of the economy and totaled nearly $7,700 per person.

Nearly one in five Americans lacked health insurance at one point since January 2008, a new survey from the Centers for Disease Control revealed.

Will populist anger at what President Obama calls “fat-cat” bankers turn the tide against the generally well-compensated venture capital, private equity and hedge fund industries? With Obama’s economic advisers consisting chiefly of Wall Street insiders and free-market acolytes, don’t bet on it.

Investments in Midwest health care start-ups fell 9 percent to $402 million in the first half of the year from a year ago, according to the latest BioEnterprise Midwest Health Care Venture Investment Report. Meanwhile, life sciences investments nationwide represented the largest percentage of total venture capital invested since the MoneyTree Report started.

There’s a belief that Polaris Ventures co-founder Terry McGuire will help health care as the new chairman of the National Venture Capital Association.

Supporters say changing Small Business Innovation Research rules to give venture capitalists (and their companies) access to more government funds will accelerate a national economic resurgence. Plus, they point out that many venture companies are small operations far from the perception of a nine-figure equity fund. But other small businesses, include life-science companies, see the changes as a potential death knell to small business funding and the spirit of innovation.