Friday, February 05, 2010

Health Care Costs Threaten to Overwhelm US Economy


This is why the US health care system is unsustainable:

A new report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published in the magazine Health Affairs estimates that spending on health care grew to 17.3% of the U.S. economy – a record and the largest one-year jump since 1960. The report also finds health care expenditures as a share of GDP is projected to grow to 19.3% by 2019, or account for 1 of every 5 dollars spent on health care, nearly twice the world average.

The rest of the world - all of those communist dictatorships like Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Israel, Colombia - don't have this problem.  They have universal health care, achieved through a variety of means and strategies.  Their economies aren't being swallowed whole.  Their citizens don't face bankruptcy when they need medical care.

Once again, the WHO health care rankings.  The United States is #37, in between Costa Rica and Slovenia.  Not that I expect things in this country to change.  There's far too much vested interest in the status quo, both political parties are owned by the corporate interests, and the peasants are just too stupid, too selfish, too easily led.  Two words: "death panels."

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