Home
Newsletter
Events
Blogs
Reports
Graphics
RSS
About Us
Support
Write for Us
Media Info
Advertising Info
Health care costs

U.S. Health Care Plan to Cost $1.5 Trillion - But Who's Counting?

Thursday, June 11, 2009 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: health care costs, health news, Natural News


Most Viewed Articles
https://www.naturalnews.com/026428_health_care_reform.html
Delicious
diaspora
Print
Email
Share

(NaturalNews) It would cost between $1.5 trillion and $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years to provide health insurance to everyone in the United States, according to an estimate by the consulting and policy analysis company the Lewin Group.

This is significantly greater than the $1.2 trillion that the group estimates it would take to pay for President Obama's proposed health care plan, which would not cover all currently uninsured U.S. residents.

Obama recently set aside $634 billion in the 2009 budget as a "down payment" on reforming the health insurance system.

"It's impossible to put a price tag on the plan before even the basics have been finalized," White House spokesperson Reid Cherlin said. "Here's what we do know: The reserve fund in the president's budget is fully paid for and provides a substantial down payment on the cost of the reforming our health care system."

Len Nichols of the New America Foundation estimated the cost of health insurance reform to be between $1.25 and $1.5 trillion over the next decade but said that Obama is being "strategic" by not committing to a firm estimate.

"Until that gets revealed by the Congress, it would be highly premature for the president to assert that sort of number," he said.

Because the health care reform is meant to be permanent, however, the plan could commit the United States to paying $150 billion per year into the indefinite future. The only way to reduce this cost would be to find a way to reduce the country's current expenditure on health care, an estimated $2.4 trillion per year.

"We shouldn't just be throwing more money on top of the present system, because the present system is so wasteful," said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.

More than a third of all money spent on health care in the United States goes to pay for unnecessary tests or other medical procedures, many experts estimate.

Sources for this story include: apnews.myway.com.

Receive Our Free Email Newsletter

Get independent news alerts on natural cures, food lab tests, cannabis medicine, science, robotics, drones, privacy and more.


comments powered by Disqus



Natural News Wire (Sponsored Content)

Science.News
Science News & Studies
Medicine.News
Medicine News and Information
Food.News
Food News & Studies
Health.News
Health News & Studies
Herbs.News
Herbs News & Information
Pollution.News
Pollution News & Studies
Cancer.News
Cancer News & Studies
Climate.News
Climate News & Studies
Survival.News
Survival News & Information
Gear.News
Gear News & Information
Glitch.News
News covering technology, stocks, hackers, and more