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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: geode00 who wrote (138918)	9/27/2008 11:38:58 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 173976

we spent 440 billion on medicare in 2007, out of a 13 trillion GDP. Medicare doesn't include other government medical costs like veterans benefits etc so lets round up to 500 billion for medicare, against a 13 trillion GDP or 3.8% of GDP. the US spends 16% of its GDP on healthcare today so the other 11% that is not bought by the govt is basically a private industry tax. According to this chart, most single payer countries are paying between 6-10% of GDP on SINGLE PAYER healthcare where they cover everybody. Canada which everybody uses as an example pays 9.8% of GDP on single payer. So, we are already paying 3.8%, that means the remaining is 6% of GDP that needs to be funded if we had a single payer system that insured EVERYBODY at the same cost as Canada - now personally I think we should be able to do it for a little LESS than some of these less populous countries just due to our enormous GDP and economies of scale. But anyway 6% of 13 trillion GDP or approx 780 billion needs to be acquired to pay for single payer at the Canada rate. But here's the thing, the US private sector is already paying DOUBLE this, or 1.6 trillion every year for the f'd up system we have where nobody is covered! I believe you could setup a single payer system with government paying in and private sector paying in and the private sector would actually get a Healthcare fee CUT from what we have now!