The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has projected that U.S. health care costs will destroy the middle class.
That is a fact.
In response, The U.S. manufacturering industry began to lobby the Obama Administration for reforms, fearing that they would go bankrupt from excessive pension costs.
Now our State and County budgets are becoming bankrupt due to these costs and if you make less than $250,000 a year and you become seriously injured or ill you will most likely go bankrupt, lose your home and probably your job.
This is an attack on the 99% and below the fold I will show you in graphic detail why that is.
This is to add some graphic analysis to the excellent diary currently on the Rec List by NYCEVE titled, "#ows unaffordable healthcare + sharply dropping income= death for the 99%" Thanks EVE!!!
Here is a graph that I made from the projections of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of total U.S. health care expenditures through 2020.
Health and Human services has projected that health care costs in the u.s. will total 36.6 Trillion dollars through fiscal years 2009-2019
here is a similar chart derived from population projections for per-capita spending in the u.s. (note this is AFTER reform legislation is taken into account)
Health and Human Services has projected that (IF) you are alive between the years 2009 and 2019 in the U.S. you will be required to spend $113,620 dollars on health care over those ten years.
how does that compare with wages? What if you simply can't afford to cover those expenses? Do you die???
Compare that graph again with the projections of the cost of health care. . .
and the projections are that wages will continue to go down. . .
u.s. wages in downward spiral
There's the rub. Nothing on the horizon suggests that a majority of workers will take home a bigger slice of the economic pie anytime soon. The bleak wage outlook and growing financial insecurity isn't a passing phenomenon reflecting the downward momentum of a recession and the fragility of the recovery. It's understandable that most people are worried about the parlous state of the job market, yet it will recover with time. The same can't be said for worker wages and family incomes. And that outlook is a long-term threat to America's prosperity.
This is how health care spending and longevity in the U.S. compares with those countries that have Socialized Medicine