When the left gets into rant mode about their plans to socialize our healthcare, one of the topics they always hit on is how much we spend on it as a nation.
Health Care: It must be in some handbook somewhere: Any time the subject comes up, lawmakers or governors or presidents pitching reform plans say the U.S. spends “too much” on health care. But is it true?
Here’s how Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., put it in January when he introduced his latest plan to nationalize health care: “National health spending has grown . . . to $2.3 trillion this year. Those aren’t just numbers, they’re massive burdens for working families.”
Others are usually quick to follow, saying that we spend far more than other industrialized nations. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation paper notes that health care spending in the U.S. is “at least 24% higher than in the next highest-spending countries, and over 90% higher than in many other countries that we would consider global competitors.”
Worse, the story goes, spending appears to be increasing at an alarming rate, up 362% between 1984 and 2004, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The Kaiser report says that health spending as a share of gross domestic product went from 8.8% in 1980 to 15.2% in 2003.
But is this really a crisis in desperate need of a government solution? The short answer: No.
Unless, of course, you also think that we have a recreation crisis, or a fitness club crisis, or a computer crisis. After all, spending on these and other things went up just as fast, if not faster, than spending on health care. Recreation spending, for example, was up 386% between 1984 and 2004. Spending on health clubs was up more than 300%; spending on computers rocketed 1,600%.
Just because spending on health care is going up at a fast pace in the U.S. isn’t necessarily a sign that something is wrong. More likely it is a sign that we are a wealthy nation that, by and large, has taken care of the essentials of life. As a result, we can afford to spend a bigger chunk of each extra dollar we make on former luxuries, like better vacations, a new laptop and gold-plated health care.
The socialized medicine cheerleaders on the left never want to mention the facts of those last couple paragraphs. I wonder why?
Here are some more facts to keep in your debate book.Â
The U.S. not only leads the world in spending on health care, but also in spending on education and on IT investments. There are more cars per capita in the U.S. than in any other industrialized country. We’re fatter than people in other countries, too, if excessive food consumption is also a measure of success.
Here’s something else to consider. According to the OECD, the top spenders on health care on a per capita basis are the U.S., Luxembourg, Switzerland and Norway. The top countries in terms of per capita income: Luxembourg, the U.S., Norway and Switzerland. Clearly there’s a relationship between economic health and spending on health care.
Doh! It’s the cost of living, stupid. When you make more per person then another country, things in your country are….wait for it…..gonna cost more!
Make sure you follow the link to the article and read the last few paragraphs.
Found at Right Thinking