When a "trillion" is a really small number

[snousle]

This passage from a New Yorker article about the Obama budget made me want to cry:

The deficit spectre has loomed over every major debate. The most contentious issue has been health care. The Administration was divided into three camps. According to White House officials, a group including Vice-President Biden and David Axelrod, a senior adviser, and led by Summers was hesitant to make a major push on health care this year, especially given the fact that a full plan would cost roughly a trillion dollars over ten years.

Hm, a trillion dollars over ten years... let's see, divide by three hundred million people, then by ten years, then by 365 days per year...

This "full plan" for health care costs a whopping NINETY ONE CENTS PER DAY.

NINETY ONE CENTS A DAY.

For a "socialist" to offer the "full plan" on health care. The plan that conservatives are so terrified of.

NINETY ONE FUCKING CENTS.

To be clear, this is far from the total cost of health care, which is approximately $7000 per person per year. Someone has to pay it - but by adding just a few percent more, we could at least be freed from the terror of being "uninsurable", and get rid of the hostile bureaucracy and wasteful blizzard of paper that makes it so difficult to get treated even if you are insured.

And we're not getting it because Americans see a "trillion" and think "oh that must be a whole lot of money, these socialists are ruining the economy".

Might as well just crawl under a rock and die.

Comments

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

That's a lot less than the current monthly premium for Medicare which is ~$90.

I'd guess many, if not most Americans, would would easily pay the going Medicare rate to be free of the "uninsurable" and "Pre-existing condition" nightmare of commercial insurance.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a slightly higher premium would be a bargain if you knew you could keep your coverage forever. It would be impossible for me to start a business if I didn't have my partner's Kaiser coverage, and even that we've had to fight for. I have little confidence that we'll be able to maintain it long term, John's pension fund is going to find SOME way to wiggle out of it eventually.

Universal health care is freedom - in particular, the freedom to change employers at will, or strike out on your own. This makes it so business-friendly that I can't understand why conservatives oppose it, since it simplifies their workforce so much that (for example) auto companies are now moving to Canada to take advantage of it.

I must emphasize, though, that health care is WAY more expensive than most Americans realize, and part of the problem is that the cost is hidden away in so many different places that it's hard for politicians to propose rational solutions.

The most fair and effective scheme would be universal coverage funded by a new 15% income tax. But even if this resulted in more take-home pay (which, in the balance, it probably would), people would throw shitfits over a tax of this magnitude. It is political suicide to reveal the true costs, so the costs remain obscured and solutions remain elusive.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

I'd say conservative politicians oppose it because some of their largest contributors are the insurance companies. A single-payor plan would also negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry, another big money contributor.

The cynic in me says that business opposes single-payor precisely for the reason you cite - it is Freedom. Employees no longer have to stay in a lower-than-market-wage job just to keep insurance coverage.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I see universal coverage as fiscally and socially responsible. Right now, if someone turns up at an emergency room in crisis - they HAVE to be treated, whether they can pay or not. And we pay for that indirectly, because the hospitals raise their prices on people who CAN pay to cover it.

It's vastly cheaper to treat someone with asthma, diabetes or whatever and keep them OUT of those expensive emergency rooms.

Furthermore - if someone contracts a communicable illness, I want them getting treated promptly, rather than spreading whatever it is around! Obviously it depends on the particular illness, but generally speaking one can argue that the sooner someone's treated, the sooner they stop being infectious. That saves money because fewer people wind up getting sick.

And while you point out that health care is more expensive than people realize, there are other indirect benefits, such as better productivity for workers - and hey, employers no longer have to mess with the whole issue AT ALL. How much does it cost businesses just to do the paperwork and whatnot?

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

It's a bargain.
But I suspect that there will be a lot of opposition in the States. If the entire populace were healthier that would mess up so many people who make money off their bad health. Can't have that.

[jpeace.livejournal.com]

Limitless trillions for bailouts and resuscitating dead assets and blowing the fuck out of wedding parties around the world with billion dollar flying deathbots but god fucking forbid we enable the least capable among us to continue living a life worth living in the face of pain and disease.

Color me furious as well.

[kevynjacobs.livejournal.com]

It's hard not to get discouraged, isn't it?

From across the pond…

[ursine1.livejournal.com]

As a legal resident in Spain, I qualify to get a "health card" (since it is a right "guaranteed" by the Spanish constitution.) Since I don't contribute to the health system through employment taxes or other means, I would be obliged to pay 87 € a month. (I carry private insurance. I have also been told that I could just obtain the health card and not have to pay anything.)

Prescription prices are negotiated between the drug firms and the government. Even tourists can benefit from this. Five years ago I had to buy a name-brand antibiotic and the price was 3 €. When I returned to the States, my doctor told me it would have been "at least $50."

The current health-care system in the US has many corporations and individuals who will do all that they can to protect their revenue flow.

Chuck