This is the first of several columns of the subject of health care.
Today's entry takes its title from a February 20, 2004 column by famed economist and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman. Krugman, an obviously partisan Democrat, wrote that a recent Gallup poll showed that 82 percent of Americans rank health care as among one of their top issues. Other polls show that plenty of Americans think that health care in America should be nationalized.
Oh shit...
The facts about health care in America are this:
1. About 84 percent of Americans (11 out of 13) have access to health insurance, either through their employers or through Medicare / Medicaid. These percentages have remained steady for the past 20+ years.
2. About 56 percent of health care costs are paid out of private sources, with the other 44 percent coming from governments and taxation. These numbers have remained steady since at least 1990. I would have to do some research to pinpoint exact dates on facts one and two above, but I stand behind my words based on immediate knowledge of the statistics.
3. Health care spending in America is now 15 percent of GDP, up from the 13 - 14 percent at which it had been since 1990 or so. Again, I would have to do some research on dates, but the "fact" I stand behind. Yes, health care in America is expensive. It is also the best in the world.
4. Most people who lose health insurance lose it for only a short time.
5. America produces many of the world's health care innovations, which are ripped off by the nationalized health care systems of other countries. The American pharmeceutical drug industry, the only one in the world that is semi - free market (though that may change in the not too far distant future if the Democrats gain control of the White House), is the source of many of the world's new drugs. Again, new drugs are not produced in great quantities by nations that have nationalized their health care systems.
6. There is no doubt that Americans are choosing to take non - wage benefits as more of their job compensation bundle. Non - wage benefits are often not taxed, verses income which IS taxed. This includes health insurance, which employers get tax breaks for offering to employees. In 1962, Americans took 17 percent (on average) of their compensation in the form of non - wage benefits. By 2000, this had reached 41 percent.
That's all for this evening. I'll write more on this complicated and complex topic over the next few days. In the process, I'll proceed to explain why I wrote "Oh Shit" at the beginning of this column!
Posted by The Mighty Wizard at February 22, 2004 10:16 PM