Almost one out of every five dollars spent today in the U.S. goes to healthcare. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects a growth rate per year of 5.8% over the next ten years. This rate compounded doubles total spending to $6 trillion in only 12 years.
Healthcare spending won’t double.
More lower and middle income people will be rationed out. Unaffordable premiums and high deductibles are already taking their toll with Obamacare and employer paid health insurance. This is only the beginning.
Our healthcare is draining our economy and causing ill effects far beyond healthcare itself. While it has helped millions the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare has done little to deal with costs and has made it worse in many ways. It is going to get worse as our “baby boom” generation ages and needs more care.
There is no such thing as free healthcare.
Those who have employers pay for their health insurance are really paying for it indirectly from their benefits package. Insurance premiums cut what employers can pay in salary. See how. Health care spending is choking income growth, consumer spending and jobs. It is concentrating income and wealth into the healthcare corporations and their rich owners.
We spend almost twice per person on healthcare than Canada, Western Europe and Japan. They are as healthy as we are if not healthier and live longer. They have universal coverage. They care for all their citizens.
One of the major causes of our very expensive healthcare is the use of Healthcare Insurance Corporations (HICs). The chart below shows that the countries that don’t use HICs, Single payers, spend a lot less per person and get good results. HICs are an unnecessary expensive burden.
In spite of how much we spend on healthcare. Americans are hurting badly, as this pie chart shows how much debt collection efforts go into medical debt:
