Posted on 01/09/2009 6:53:05 PM PST by Kaslin
Barack Obama talked somberly last week about getting the federal budget under control once the present economic crisis is past. To do that, he'll have to confront the rapid growth of health spending, which in 2007 was already a quarter of total federal spending of $2.7 trillion.
If Obama is serious, he should read a fascinating new study from the McKinsey Global Institute, the research arm of the famed consulting company.
American health care has gone haywire. It provides much splendid care but has glaring deficiencies. It's so costly that 15% of us lack health insurance. Runaway spending is also crowding out other government programs and, through bloated insurance premiums, squeezing take-home pay.
What McKinsey provides is a plausible estimate of the overspending: one-third. In 2006, U.S. health spending totaled $2.1 trillion. Of that, $650 billion exceeded the norms of other rich nations, figures McKinsey.
For the extra money, we receive no indisputably large benefit in national well-being. On some measures (breast cancer survival rates), we do better than many countries; on some others (life expectancy), we do worse.
We're always searching for villains to explain this unsatisfactory situation. McKinsey debunks some popular candidates.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
What other rich nation is McKinsley Group comparing our health care costs to? In the border states, ie, TX, AZ, CA, NM, an unequal amount of money go to health care costs on illegal aliens as compared to legal residents and Americans. I imagine other states spend an unequal amount on their illegals as well.
You are partially correct. Whenever the government and the unions enter any type of organization the costs skyrocket. Look at the tuitions now asked by our educations institutions.
Get the government out of healthcare. If people can afford cable television, LCD TVs, new cars, etc. then they can afford to pay for their own healthcare insurance.
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