I have heard a lot of talk from the people saying we here in the US should have national health care. So I got bored and did a couple of quick calculations.
The Canadian Government spends $4867 a year per person
They have a population of 33,000,000
End cost $160 Billion or 10.6% of the annual budget
OK, lets use the Canadian system for the US
US population: 305,000,000 give or take
305,000,000x4867= 1 484 435 000 000
My calculator couldn't ever compute this, I had to use Google.
So in one year it would cost the US $1.484 trillion dollars. That is only about 11% of our GDP, but it is only covering 70% of the population.
Here is the 2007 budget
The President's actual budget for 2007 totals $2.8 trillion. Percentages in parentheses indicate percentage change compared to 2006. This budget request is broken down by the following expenditures:
* $586.1 billion (+7.0%) - Social Security
* $548.8 billion (+9.0%) - Defense[2]
* $394.5 billion (+12.4%) - Medicare
* $294.0 billion (+2.0%) - Unemployment and welfare
* $276.4 billion (+2.9%) - Medicaid and other health related
* $243.7 billion (+13.4%) - Interest on debt
* $89.9 billion (+1.3%) - Education and training
* $76.9 billion (+8.1%) - Transportation
* $72.6 billion (+5.8%) - Veterans' benefits
* $43.5 billion (+9.2%) - Administration of justice
* $33.1 billion (+5.7%) - Natural resources and environment
* $32.5 billion (+15.4%) - Foreign affairs
* $27.0 billion (+3.7%) - Agriculture
* $26.8 billion (+28.7%) - Community and regional development
* $25.0 billion (+4.0%) - Science and technology
* $23.5 billion (+0.8%) - Energy
* $20.1 billion (+11.4%) - General government
Where would the money come from for this National Health Care System?
The Canadian Government spends $4867 a year per person
They have a population of 33,000,000
End cost $160 Billion or 10.6% of the annual budget
OK, lets use the Canadian system for the US
US population: 305,000,000 give or take
305,000,000x4867= 1 484 435 000 000
My calculator couldn't ever compute this, I had to use Google.
So in one year it would cost the US $1.484 trillion dollars. That is only about 11% of our GDP, but it is only covering 70% of the population.
Here is the 2007 budget
The President's actual budget for 2007 totals $2.8 trillion. Percentages in parentheses indicate percentage change compared to 2006. This budget request is broken down by the following expenditures:
* $586.1 billion (+7.0%) - Social Security
* $548.8 billion (+9.0%) - Defense[2]
* $394.5 billion (+12.4%) - Medicare
* $294.0 billion (+2.0%) - Unemployment and welfare
* $276.4 billion (+2.9%) - Medicaid and other health related
* $243.7 billion (+13.4%) - Interest on debt
* $89.9 billion (+1.3%) - Education and training
* $76.9 billion (+8.1%) - Transportation
* $72.6 billion (+5.8%) - Veterans' benefits
* $43.5 billion (+9.2%) - Administration of justice
* $33.1 billion (+5.7%) - Natural resources and environment
* $32.5 billion (+15.4%) - Foreign affairs
* $27.0 billion (+3.7%) - Agriculture
* $26.8 billion (+28.7%) - Community and regional development
* $25.0 billion (+4.0%) - Science and technology
* $23.5 billion (+0.8%) - Energy
* $20.1 billion (+11.4%) - General government
Where would the money come from for this National Health Care System?