How long would it take to count to 1.8 trillion?

Quite a lot of cash! This may just further inflation wouldn't it?

Interestingly this comes at a time when the raises in healthcare spending as a whole is shrinking.


Also, what it's missing is that "doctors reprieve" was used to get the American Medical Association to support the Presidents healthcare bill.

Up until that option was put in the AMA was decidedly against it for raising healthcare costs.

Worth keeping in mind when talking about how to reduce healthcare spending....

I have to imagine all off these government spending programs cost more than a decent universal health care system would, while being far less effective.

That is what you get with most of the population fat and unhealthy.  Relying on prescription drugs rather than address the real problem.  Americans have become too lazy and will take a cure all pill for anything even though that pill is only hiding symptoms (and probably causing more problems).  Too bad the only way to really address it is with a lifestyle change.  Eating as little processed foods as possible and rarely going to fast food is a start.  Eating what you are supposed to goes a long way.  If you eat shit then you will probably become shit.  You are what you eat.

Regardless of whether it is an insurance company or the government, having a third party decide how your money will be spent is a good way to ensure that you get unsatisfactory service at a very high cost ...

Get the government and insurance companies out of providing health benefit programs, and introduce real health insurance, and watch the cost of health-care collapse.

Its not just that. The real core problem is how the government and administration treat health care.

That is, with massive regulations and controls that put the government and reporting at the center of care, and not the patient. For example, if a hospital wants paid via Medicare/Medicaid, they have to fill out a ton of paperwork. A 15 minute checkup may require 30 minutes or an hours' worth of paperwork either by the doctor (making $50/hr) or the hospital staff (making between $10-$30/hr).

Add in all of the compliance costs of drugs through the FDA, and pills become prohibitively expensive, as billions are poured into R&D for drugs that may or may not get approved by the government for use in patients - much less the years of clinical trials required before its approved.

Finally, look at the cost of actually becoming a doctor in America. We have the highest standards in the developed world. It requires 12 years of schooling and residency to become a doctor vs. 6 years in the developing world (India, China, ect) and 8 or less in the developed world (Europe, and Japan which is 6 years). That leads to massive debt among doctors going into practice - a cost which is directly transferred onto the patient.

Finally, add on top a health care 'insurance' that essentially pays for every facet of care, regardless if its a visit or cancer, and you drive costs up even further. My car insurance doesn't pay for oil or tires, but my health insurance paid for visits and medicines as well as surgeries and other major issues.

Add all four facets together, and you have the unique problem of American health care. Its a broken system, and pushing Medicare or a universal payer system onto everyone will not fix the intrinsic problems with our system. But rather, the opposite will happen: Costs will not be contained. People will go without (rationing), and the tax rate will skyrocket, taking monies away from the producers and giving them to the consumers that want to eat a twinkie diet and have the skinny, healthy, wealthy guy pay for his knee surgery when his skeleton can't support his 400lb frame any longer.

Thats nor just a US problem but WW.

Well i guess you´re right but most people are lazy and like to eat shit and drink alot. I dont think we can do anything about it...

Hooray for third party payer systems!

Sure you can.

It'll have everyone screaming bloody murder in the streets.

Its called "Letting Darwin Do His Thing"

Cut off all subsidies. All freebies. Make people pay for their care, or go to a charity that can help them with their problem on a case-by-case basis. Then, if someone wants to eat cheetoes for lunch and have Mt. Dew for dinner, or have unprotected, STD-ridden sex all the time, they are free to do it. But if they won't get a free ride. In one generation, you'd have all the lazy, (physically) useless people gone, and the ones that survived knowing what it takes to live life proper and in good health. Not because its just the right thing to do, but its the most affordable way to go.

Of course, such a method requires smaller government and a responsible populace. Those are the core reasons we have the problems we do today.