This will be a little different. I need to rant about health care.
As y’all well know, the United States is the only industrialized nation on the planet still trying to provide health care through a private for-profit system, only using government programs as patches for what the private system won’t touch because there’s no profit in it, like taking care of the elderly.
In 2024, the United States spent an estimated $15,474 per person on health care, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This isn’t just government spending but all spending, including what we pay out of pocket.
Now let’s look at what other industrialized nations spend. Germany has one of the most expensive health care systems in Europe. They’re spending $9,365 USD per capita per year. Again, that’s all spending. Germany’s health care system is ranked a lot higher than ours, by the way, as measured by outcomes and accessibility. The average spending in European Union countries is $5,005.50 annually per capita. Quality varies, but several of those countries rank higher than the U.S. in quality.
Why are we spending so much more? One reason is that we have no cost controls. I understand providers of pharmaceuticals and medical technology have been free to charge whatever they want in most circumstances. And where else do pharmaceutical companies spend millions on television advertising? Often the same products are far more expensive in the U.S. than anywhere else. Another reason is that keeping track of the many separate insurance plans requires an army of clerical workers to keep track of them. And when uninsured patients can’t pay, or he insurance companies won’t pay, for care already provided, medical facilities often add hidden surcharges to everybody’s bills to make up for the loss.
Other industrialized nations don’t have identical systems, but generally they offer healthcare to everybody through a taxpayer supported system in one way or another. Everybody is covered. These systems get economies of scale and negotiate uniform prices with providers. There is no clerical or advertising overhead. Often there are legal limits on how much profit anyone can charge. Health care dollars aren’t going toward providing profits for insurance companies.
Switzerland is a bit of an aberration. It has a system that’s something like Obamacare on steroids that requires people to purchase insurance policies, but the insurance companies are nonprofit.
Our system is a hot mess that is overrun with price gouging and built-in overheads all over the place. And I am really tired of people telling me that we “can’t afford” a national health care system. I say we can’t afford what we’ve got now. We’re spending all that money and still a lot of Americans don’t have coverage and are basically cut off from the health care system. And it’s going to get worse next year, when more of the cuts in the Big Ugly Bill go into effect.
So keep these numbers handy and show them to anybody you hear saying we can’t afford “Medicare for All” or a national health care system. Please spread the word.
