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Sanders Rips Lawmakers Saying 'We Don't Have the Money' While Backing $900 Billion for Military
(www.commondreams.org)
this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2024
580 points (98.2% liked)
United States | News & Politics
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$1.05 trillion is spent on Medicare and Medicaid and yet drug prices are soaring and healthcare costs for Americans are at an all time high.
Meanwhile in Canada, in 2023 the federal government spent C$334 bn ($233bn USD) (source)
And in the UK, the budget for healthcare is £201.9bn ($266bn USD) (source)
Both Canada and the UK have free healthcare.
So for about 1/3 of the cost of what the US government pays in healthcare, other governments are able to provide free healthcare to their people.
The problem in the US isn't that they're spending money on social services. The US can solve its budget by regulating the out of control healthcare market. Other countries have done it, it's clearly not impossible.
Sure. I'm not arguing against UHC or trying to claim that nothing needs to be done. I'm just pointing out that the DoD budget wouldn't make a dent in this problem.
BTW you really shouldn't compare this based on absolute dollars.
Canada - 233 Billion spent on a population of 40 Million people means $5,850 per capita.
The UK - 266 Billion spent on a population of 69 Million people means $3,855 per capita.
The US - 1.05 Trillion (your number) spent on a of population of 346 Million people would be just $3,034 per capita.
1/3rd the cost would be roughly 333,333 Billion and drop the per capita expense to right around $1,000. There's absolutely no possible way that math works.
Now if we were take the ENTIRE DoD budget, as in no military expenses at all, and stack it on top of the existing 1.05 Trillion (your number) that would give us 1.95 Trillion and a per capita expense of around $5,635. That's still not enough to reach Canada's level of spending.
The math isn't mathing here.
Again, I'm not arguing that something doesn't need to be done but no matter how you go at this the DoD budget isn't the problem and even using ALL of it wouldn't get the job done.
Not everyone uses Medicare or Medicaid. Not a fair comparison. Looks like 135 million are covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIPS. So, about $7,777 per person.
https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/news-alert/cms-releases-latest-enrollment-figures-medicare-medicaid-and-childrens-health-insurance-program-chip
Fair enough, so how does $7,777 per person end up at the claimed 1/3rd the cost?
Also if we extend that $7,777 per person cost to 340,000,000 people you get a total of roughly 2.65 Trillion dollars. So even 1.95 Trillion (Medicare/Medicaid/CHIPS + the entire DoD Budget) would still come up nearly a Trillion dollars short.
Again, the math doesn't work.
I didn't say it did. But trying to extend current costs to figure out the cost of covering everyone doesn't work either. Costs won't stay the same.