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

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(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.

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