It's one of those great arguments about UHC that just won't die. The utterly perplexing idea that UHC will cost more money.
If a UHC system was introduced that was even within earshot of sanity then the cost for US healthcare will HALVE. That's right, US healhtcare cost per person are approximately twice the next most expensive system. Yes people, stop, take a deep breath and think about DIVIDING THE COST OF HEALTHCARE BY 2. This is the cost of UHC. You will be forced to save lots of money. Why is this the case? well running thousands of different insurance companies each with hundreds of different policies means a whole dirty great big stack of paperwork. The per person costs of running Americas healthcare system amount to 30% of the total costs. The amount spend on administering the US healthcare system per person is roughly 10 times the per person admin costs under most UHC systems. Add in advertising, profits and CEO pay and you start to find out why the system cost so damned much. Nothing to do with actual healthcare.
But, this isn't really a fair comparison. In countries with UHC there is no monetary penalty to seeking healthcare, yet investigations and polls show that nearly 1 in 3 Americans have avoided seeking medical help for a serious injury or illness due to the costs. Not only is the US system by far the most expensive, it's not helping as many people! Oh and this has a 'hidden' cost to is as, when combined with the lack of paid sick leave, people are forced to work while ill, thusly spreading the illness to the rest of the staff, the results are estimated to cost US businesses billions a year. It appears that sick leave is starting to be addressed though.
Next up comes the funding sourcing. As we all know, tax revenue comes predominatly from the rich and from businesses. This is where the money that will fund healthcare will be coming from. Yes it will cost businesses and rich people more money, but it will slash the costs of healthcare for the vast majority of the populace.
Moving onto the relative costs between nations. As we all know, the same amount of money goes alot further in the US than it does in the countries being compaired to, predominanty in Europe. Americans have higher purchasing power. This means that the costs of healthcare should also be lower as the staff, facilities, medicines should all be able to be produced at less costs. Healthcare in America should be cheaper than in Europe.
So all in all how much more expensive is corporate healthcare than public healthcare? The admin makes it about twice as expensive, then to cover those who don't actuall seek medical attention due to costs that UHC is treating and the differences in buying power between the US and Europe and we are looking more realistically at 3 times more expensive than UHC.
How will this translate to the average American? Divide it by about 2 for the inherent saving of UHC (including the fact that many people already have a government healthcare plan in the form or medicare). A progressive taxation payment system will further slash cost to the average American by around 70%.
Overall the country should easily see heralthcare costs halved whereas the average American should see theit healthcare bill slashed to around a fifth of the current cost. For business is should be fairly neutral as the overall lowering in costs will be offset by having to pay a larger percentage of the costs. This will also be balanced by the populace having more money to spend, stimulating demand which is obviously good for business.
Obviously this doesn't cover the other arguemnts against UHC such as percieved reductions in choice, constitutional issues, the notion that the US government is unable to run anything within an earshot of sanity etc. This is purely about the costs of UHC, They are lower, way way lower than private healthcare costs.
{Edit I guess the earshot of sanity argument would have some merit if Hillary gets elected}
Last edited by PureFodder (2008-02-05 07:01:55)
