In a story on ABC News last night their medical correspondent Dr. Tim Johnson put a dollar figure on the various Democratic health care plans of $60-$110 billion a year. Yikes, right?
Well, for contrast, the budget for defense spending has been trending upwards of $400 billion a year under George W. Bush. Search the historical tables for the term Defense. In 2001 the defense budget (in billions of dollars) was $304,759; in 2002, $348,482; in 2003, $404,778; in 2004, $455,847; in 2005, $495,326; in 2006, $521,840; and in 2007, $571,869. Also bear in mind that those numbers don't include funding for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, already at $600 billion and rising.
So can we afford to spend $110 billion a year on universal health care? Sure. From the Census bureau we can figure about 200 million households in the US; raise each one's taxes by $50/month and you get $100 billion. Say you raise taxes by only $30/month ($60 billion) and get out of Iraq, cut out DOD spending on archaic weapons systems, and you can probably get there. Then go to work on rationalizing health care expenditures (Medicare has administrative costs of 3%; private healthcare's admin costs run close to 20%).
Easy. What's next?
Posted by Linkmeister at December 12, 2007 11:00 AM | TrackBack"(Medicare has administrative costs of 3%; private healthcare's admin costs run close to 20%)."
Be careful. You can be hauled away to a Wackenhut-owned prison for questioning the efficiency of the private sector.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
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