USA’s “private” health care
August 17th, 2009 Posted in UK Politics, US Politics by Julian Harris
It’s perhaps beneficial to my own health that I’ve been distracted enough to miss out on much of the frenzied debate on the US and UK health systems (both of which are flawed).
However, one point I’ve felt the need to contribute is as follows:
Almost 7 per cent of GDP in the USA is spent on healthcare by government.
Thus, the idea that the US system is a model of private provision is incorrect.
For entirely different reasons I ended up just now on a website entitled USASpending.gov. On the homepage thereof is a list of the top 5 recipients of government spending. As follows:
- DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES
- NEW YORK STATE DEPT OF HEALTH
- TEXAS HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION
- PENNSYLVANIA DEPT OF PUBLIC WELFARE
- LOUISIANA DEPT OF HEALTH & HOSPITALS
Bold added.
The total received by the four health groups alone is around $55,000,000,000.
Just thought I’d share.
Tags: health
August 17th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
If memory serves, that’s about – as a % – what we spend on the NHS. 1% lower, I think.
August 17th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Add in inflated costs due to:
1) Licensing of medical practitioners
2) Patents
3) The FDA approval bureaucracy
and it mounts up.
Also, does that include the government spending of R&D? Big pharma gets lots of R&D money, but they get to keep the patents.
There’s also an argument that the agricultural subsidies and price fixing helps put up medical costs by encouraging unhealthy foods.
All in all the US system is almost as far away from a free market as the NHS.
August 17th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Oh, and a lot of people protesting about Obamacare are actually on medicaid or medicare.
They believe they will lose out – and those schemes are meant to help the most needy…
August 17th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Are you anti-IP, Tris?
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:11 am
The fact that the US government spends more per person on healthcare than the NHS, while employers and citizens also have to shell out large amounts of money for insurance, is a reminder that the American system has serious problems.
I’m disappointed by the way the “debate” has descended into mudslinging by the left (“if you don’t tweet #welovetheNHS you must be an evil murderer”) and the right (who seem to believe that the current American healthcare system is an embodiment of consumer choice – even though about half of the population is covered by various public programmes and most of the rest are covered by their employers).
I would like Liberal Vision to make some constructive suggestions for reforming British healthcare, rather than simply defending the American system. Perhaps Dutch-style compulsory insurance with competining providers would be a good start?
August 24th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Niklas, I entirely agree – the debate became absurdly polarised, especially given that neither the UK nor the US can affect each other’s healthcare system.
I don’t think the Dutch system is perfect, but it has been an improvement on the “social insurance” model they had before.
I’ll take up your recommendation for constructive suggestions; drop me a reminder if I haven’t done this within a week.