"If we do not fix our health care system, America may go the way of GM — paying more, getting less, and going broke."
President Barack Obama June 15, 2009 in front of the American Medical Association
Americans currently operate the most expensive and inefficient private-- and public-- health care systems in the world. And the astronomical and ever increasing cost of medical care in the United States is a continuously growing cancer that threatens the long term economic health of American industries and the economy as a whole.
It is estimated that private health insurance and other worker benefits add $1,000 to $1,500 to the cost of manufacturing a car in America, while it only adds approximately $150 per car in Japan. GM, however, claims health care costs added between $1,500 and $2,000 to the cost of every automobile it manufactures. The Business Roundtable, which represents the largest U.S. corporations, released a study showing that for every $100 spent in the United States on health care, a group of five of our leading economic competitors (Canada, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and France) spend only 63 cents.
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