Facts about U.S. Health Care*
• Health care in the United States costs about $2.5-3 trillion annually;
• Health care is about 18% of the U.S. gross national product;
• 5% of the U.S. population account for 50% of annual health care costs;
• About 16% of the U.S. population has no health insurance;
• U.S. has 2.4 doctors per 1000 people, average among developed nations is 3.1;
• U.S. has 2.6 hospital beds per 1000 people, average among developed nations is 3.4;
• U.S. life expectancy at birth is 78.7 years, average among developed nations is 79.8;
• Administrative costs of health care in the U.S. are higher than in any other developed nation;
• Annual health care cost per person in the U.S. is 50% higher than any other developed nation;
• U.S. has the highest rates of hospital admissions for manageable conditions such as diabetes, COPD and asthma;
• U.S. has the highest rates of spending among developed nations for preventable diseases;
• U.S. spends more on technology for health care than any other developed nation;
• U.S. spends more on health care and cancer research than any other developed nation;
• Five-year survival rate for breast and colorectal cancer is among the best in developed nations.
*Source is a report by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
About $2.5-3 trillion are spent on health care in the United States annually. All of us who are working, paying taxes and paying our bills are footing the cost of that health care. Until the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) was passed, there was no provision in our law to provide for that health care cost to be paid, so it was handled piece meal and whatever wasn’t covered by either insurance or some other program was tacked onto the individual bills of those among us paying out of pocket.
We spend more on health care than any other nation because we have the poorest system of keeping people healthy of any developed nation on the face of the Earth.
We have among the finest systems on Earth for adding five years onto the lives of people dying of cancer and cardiovascular disease-but we do a lousy job of preventing the cancer and cardiovascular disease in the first place.
Until the ACA was passed, we were the only developed nation on Earth not providing universal health care. People in other developed nations get health care to prevent the most common health problems we have to deal with like diabetes, COPD, asthma, cardiovascular disease, etc.
We have more preventable health care costs than any other developed nation, but Obamacare offers an opportunity to change that by making it possible for our citizens to get the same level of health care available in other developed nations.
Republican President Theodore Roosevelt began the push for Obamacare back at the beginning of the last century.
Obamacare doesn’t increase health care costs at all, it only provides a method of paying for it while making sure that our health care system is effective at preventing disease as well as at treating serious health conditions. All the evidence, based on the experience of every other developed nation, is that Obamacare will reduce our national health care costs.
Now a foolish cadre of Republican congressmen want to undo Roosevelt’s dream and return us to the expensive and ineffective system that preceded Obamacare. They offer no alternative option for addressing health care costs.
De-funding Obamacare is a silly, selfish and really stupid proposition advanced by politicians who already enjoy all of the benefits Obamacare extends to the rest of Americans. The President is right to refuse to bargain about it.
Larry Dobson