1 |
need health with debate Posted by babyblue6 on Nov 7, 2009. |
Reference Group
2 |
If I could answer the second part of this question with 100% certainty I'd be a god, which I'm not. At least not so far as I know.... How expensive is the health care system now? As of 2006 it took up 15.3% of our GDP (the value of all goods and services we produced in the US that year). So we were spending 15.3% of all our income on health care. Only one country spent a higher percentage of GDP on health that year (and that was Timor-Leste). The next highest rich country was France, with 11.0% (figures from The Economist magazine). The NY Times says (see link) that health care this year is projected to cost $2.5 trillion, which will be over 17% of our GDP this year. So the costs are going up. The major arguments for the bill (whichever version of it we're talking about) are
You can get a lot more info by following the links...
Posted by pohnpei397 on Nov 7, 2009. |
3 |
There will be much in the way of discussion on this question. I think that the answer to the questions offered depends largely from which position you speak. If one is speaking from a position of wealth and relative comfort with their financial condition, health care might not be seen as a very large concern. At the same time, if one is speaking from an economically challenged condition, the costs of health care are massive and can cause a great deal of economic stress. It is difficult to ascertain "pure facts" because of the politicized and partisan debate that has engulfed the issue recently, but has always been there to a large extent. If one believes that the reformation of the health care industry is critical, two ideas will resonate. The first would be that National health spending is expected to reach $2.5 trillion in 2009, accounting for 17.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). By 2018, national health care expenditures are expected to reach $4.4 trillion—more than double 2007 spending. Such numbers indicate a great deal of growth that must be accounted for or resolved. Given the current economic crisis with which the nation is wrestling, this becomes challenging. The second would be that national health expenditures are expected to increase faster than the growth in GDP: between 2008 and 2018, the average increase in national health expenditures is expected to be 6.2 percent per year, while the GDP is expected to increase only 4.1 percent per year. Again, seeing that growth is already slowed, confirmed by double digit unemployment divulged yesterday, this will prove to be a challenge. Additionally, some believe that there is a correlation between the increase in cost and the rise of the uninsured. This would be where the belief is that some level of government action will help subside some of the rise in costs. The hope would be that that government involvement might be able to assist individuals in receiving health care outside of this exponential growth in costs. If government can help in any realm to alleviate costs and expenditures in both enhancing preventive care measures and providing some level of respite to those who have insurance and coverage to those that don't, the thinking would be that this could be vital in offsetting the mammoth growth of health care costs. Posted by akannan on Nov 7, 2009. |

