this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023

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U.S. government spent more on health care in 2022 than six countries with universal health care combined (www.statnews.com)

submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave to c/news

143 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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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[–] General_Effort 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

These stats are easy to find. The US spends a much higher percentage of its GDP on health care (16.6%) than anyone else. The difference is bigger than the entire US military budget. If the US cut its health care spending to the level of France (12.1%) or Germany (12.7%), it could more than double its military spending.

It terms of actual resources, the difference is even bigger, as US-Americans work much more than Europeans. I'm not sure what for.

ETA: At the same time, the US has a younger population, which should not really need as much care.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

You mean to tell me we can have better healthcare and more guns, and save money doing it?

Are you running for president?

[–] General_Effort 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Actually proposing that would be political suicide.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Only in a backward country like the US it would.

Plenty of Americans are against their best interests.