We continue to hear that a universal health care plan in the USA will drive up costs.
However, the numbers simply do not add up. The United States of America are already paying more than any other industrialized nation on Earth. How can reform cost more?
If we look at the current per capital spending in the USA and the rest of the world, we can see that the USA pays about $4,500.00; where as the upper average of all other nations is about $2,500.00, or less! If we use these two dollar per capita dollar costs we get $1,365,750,000,000.00 (USA) versus $758,750,000,000.00 for a USA population of 304,059,724 (2008 estimated population).
See: Healthcare costs: http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/...
USA Population: http://quickfacts.census.gov/...
Here is a graphic explanation of this.
Adapted from:
http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/...
I do not understand why we cannot do better if we simply follow the rest of the World's lead and do not try to reinvent the wheel... even if it is "uniquely American."