this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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American taxpayers footed the bill for at least $1.8 trillion in federal and state health care expenditures in 2022 — about 41% of the nearly $4.5 trillion in both public and private health care spending the U.S. recorded last year, according to the annual report released last week by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

On top of that $1.8 trillion, third-party programs, which are often government-funded, and public health programs accounted for another $600 billion in spending.

This means the U.S. government spent more on health care last year than the governments of Germany, the U.K., Italy, Spain, Austria, and France combined spent to provide universal health care coverage to the whole of their population (335 million in total), which is comparable in size to the U.S. population of 331 million.

Between direct public spending and compulsory, tax-driven insurance programs, Germany spent about $380 billion in health care in 2022; France spent around $300 billion, and so did the U.K.; Italy, $147 billion; Spain, $105 billion; and Austria, $43 billion. The total, $1.2 trillion, is about two-thirds of what the U.S. government spent without offering all of its citizens the option of forgoing private insurance.

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[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 36 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Yep, this is why I argue with people who say, we should raise taxes to fund it....no fuck that, we can afford it now already without having to raise taxes even a penny.

[–] Synthead@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

We would save a significant amount of money. And private insurance almost always doesn't provide good healthcare. Imagine no copays or deductables.

[–] aphlamingphoenix@lemm.ee 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Imagine not having to argue with a massive corporation about whether you should be able to take the medication your doctor told you to take.

[–] jasondj@ttrpg.network 9 points 11 months ago

Imagine not having to choose between taking your kid to the doctor for $300 and a sick note for sniffles or letting him tough it out and get marked truant.

[–] whatwhatwutyut@midwest.social 2 points 11 months ago

I have to say, being on Medicaid through college showed just how true this is. Being able to put my health first, rather than worry about if I could afford a doctor visit (or an ER visit), was great. The peace of mind of knowing that I would pay $0 for ANYTHING medical lead to me putting my health first.

The one potential charge you could get was for going to the ER for something deemed a "non-emergency." Even then I didn't worry about whether I could go to the ER after whiffing it off my longboard and smacking my head into the pavement because... well, the non-emergency charge was $8.

[–] chitak166@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This was very eye-opening for me as an American into the world of public healthcare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1TaL7OhveM

[–] shasta@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago

Yeah that's pretty informative. I am not sure how well the recommendation for implementing it in the US would work though. It's probably the best chance anyone in the US has for government funded healthcare, but it would mean people in the poorest states would get the worst healthcare. It would probably still be a step up and we could give solutions to that problem later.