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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 11 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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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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[-] WhyDoYouPersist@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Yeah the ENT specialist I saw was three months after I was referred by my general physician, because that's the earliest they had available.

There's nothing admirable about US heathcare (at no fault of the healthcare workers, let me be clear).

[-] Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I admit that I technically have a horse in the US healthcare system. The industry I work in contracts our labour vs the US market because they don't have to pay in to sponsor our medical insurance policy coverage. Technically speaking if the US fixed it's healthcare my job would be less competitive.

But fuck, my job ain't worth anybody suffering.

this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
791 points (100.0% liked)

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