Healthcare Spending to Double by 2017
As if healthcare spending weren't already a train wreck in the making, it's projected to nearly double by 2017, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced today. That means it'll reach a whopping $4.3 trillion and account for 19.5 percent of our gross domestic product, up from 16.3 percent now.
Meanwhile, in a parallel universe called Campaign Land, the candidates for president propose expanding coverage to some or all of the 47 million who are uninsured. Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in particular are talking up huge new programs that they claim would accomplish the laudable goal of making healthcare coverage universal. John McCain's plan is less far reaching, but he, too, proposes improving access to affordable healthcare.
I know that candidates don't like to get bogged down in specifics while they're weaving their spells, but this particular voter is finding it hard to give in to their enchantments while there's this distracting little voice inside saying, "Show me the money."
It's not that the candidates haven't discussed costs. They have. Using the handy side-by-side comparison tool at the Kaiser Family Foundation's election website, I can easily see that Clinton estimates her program will cost $110 billion annually once it's fully phased in, while Obama says his will cost $50 to $65 billion. McCain hasn't yet spelled out what his plan would cost, so it's harder to hold his feet to the fire, at least for now.
The Clinton and Obama campaigns maintain that they've figured out how to pay for their proposals without worsening the deficit. The problem is that given the difficulties we already face—that $4.3 trillion—their mechanisms to finance these programs just aren't very convincing. In addition to discontinuing tax cuts for wealthy Americans and reducing our presence in Iraq, they rely extensively on savings from quality and efficiency improvements within the healthcare system itself. That's like saying you're going to pay for a weight-loss program with the money you'll save on groceries once you're slim. Beefing up prevention and adopting electronic health records do indeed hold out great promise for long-term healthcare savings. But how are we going to pay for them in the here and now?
Tags: healthcare | presidential election 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | John McCain
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HEALTHCARE SKYROCKETING COSTS
OLDER AMERICANS COULD BE GIVEN FEWER LIFE PRESERVING MEDICAL PROCEDURES IF THEIR QUALITY OF LIFE IS NOT ENHANCED; LIKELY DEMINISHED BY MERELY PROLONGING LIFE.
How to pay for healthcare
McCain has said we could be in Iraq for the next 100 years. Even if we are not in a full-out war with Iraq but a "continued presence" as McCain has suggested, where does the money come from to continue our nation building? The answer: deficit spending. This deficit spending weakens the dollar makes health care costs go up even faster (i.e. inflation) Here is the amount of money we spend in military spending:
$481.4 billion - DOD requested for salaries, operations (except in Iraq and Afghanistan), and equipment.
$141.7 billion - "supplemental" budget to fight the "global war on terrorism"
$93.4 billion - DOD war costs in the remainder of 2007
$50 billion - additional "allowance" to be charged to fiscal year 2009
Subtotal: $766.5 billion.
$23.4 billion - DOE developing and maintaining nuclear warheads
$25.3 billion - State Dept foreign military assistance
$1.0 billion - recruitment and reenlistment incentives for U.S. military
$1.9 billion - Department of Justice for the paramilitary activities of the FBI
$38.5 billion - Department of the Treasury for the Military Retirement Fund
$7.6 billion - for the military-related activities of NASA
$200.0 billion - interest for past debt-financed defense outlays
Grand Total: $1.064 trillion
Michelle Andrews, your asking the wrong question. The question is, how are we going to pay for our Imperialism? We could easily afford to provide universal health care if we cut even just a fraction out of our reckless military spending.
Good article
How do people think that $110 Billion will pay for it. Every healthcare program started by the government costs over 3 times the original estimate.
Roll back tax cuts for the wealthy? That's ignorant, the reason the wealthy get bigger tax cuts is because they pay more in taxes. Simple. The top 1% of income earners pay over 25% of the federal income tax. The bottom 40% pay 0, exactly 0. To make matters worse, this "war" on the middle class is horsesqueeze, the middle class is shrinking, but so is the lower class. Amazingly they are moving upward.
55% of all healthcare spending is spent on problems associated with smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise. This sounds like something I want to give more money to.
Medicare, medicaid, and social security are all bankrupt. Do we really want to put our healthcare in the hands of these idiots as well?
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