Let’s get some healthcare facts on the table (source is the nonpartisan National Healthcare Coalition):

1. In 2008, total healthcare spending in the U.S. was $2.4 trillion.

2. The federal government via Medicaid already insures 45 million people at a cost of nearly one-half trillion dollars in 2008 (16 percent of the federal budget).

3. The federal and states governments already insure 55 million people via Medicaid. One out of every six dollars spent on healthcare in the U.S. comes from Medicaid.

4. Over 50 percent of total healthcare spending in the U.S.A. is already provided through publicly funded insurance programs, while covering less than 40 percent of the population. Healthcare in the U.S.A. is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense. There is not enough money in the Pentagon to cure this ill.

5. Canadians express serious disillusionment with their healthcare system. A recent poll sponsored by the Canadian Medical Association found that “two-thirds of those polled said their families had to wait longer for medical service in the last year than they thought was reasonable.”

Doctors are also unhappy; family doctors are currently asking for a 30 percent increase in their fees. Some Canadian provinces have recently contracted with U.S. providers for services that require long waits in Canada.

6. In Germany, the average citizen pays 14 percent of their monthly salary for healthcare, a compulsory requirement by the government. Higher income earners pay more. Long waits for care are a particular problem for the German system; in a 1990 poll, 19 percent of citizens reported waiting more than 12 weeks between being seen by a specialist and undergoing surgery.

7. The British healthcare system is experiencing serious problems with its funding, service, and staff that vary in severity across the region. In the United Kingdom in 1990, 41.2 percent of Britons reported waiting more than 12 weeks between seeing a specialist and receiving surgical care. British health secretary Liam Fox suggested that the number of people opting for private care rose by 29 percent in 2001 because of dissatisfaction with the National Health Service.

8. The French are more satisfied with their national health plan, but in addition to compulsory enrollment and the cost associated for people making above a certain salary, everyone (except the poor) pays percentages of care and medicines.

For prescription drugs, the typical portion paid by the patient is 35 percent of the drug. So called “comfort drugs” carry a copay of up to 65 percent. Under the Securite Sociale, patients pay 30 percent of the cost of a general practitioner or specialist visit. Hospital bills are paid at 80 percent for the first month of treatment and 100 percent thereafter.

Because of this high level of reimbursement and coverage, French healthcare is among the most expensive in the world. France’s healthcare budget is the world’s third largest, accounting for almost 10 percent of the GDP and growing just as fast as ours.

What does this all mean? The healthcare crisis is not a uniquely American one. Every industrialized nation is struggling with increasing costs.

Make no mistake: There is no silver bullet and nationalized care is not the solution. Regardless of the spin applied, in nearly every country with national care, fully half of the citizens are dissatisfied and their governments are struggling with the choice of raising individual cost or limiting services.

We are an aging population whose medical needs will continue to rise. Tort reform to limit doctors’ exposure and the insurance required to offset that exposure would help.

Reigning in insurance and hospital administration costs through networking and commonality of systems would help.

Progressive public financing (based upon individual income) to support the purchase of private insurance would increase competition and lower cost.

Limiting lifetime maximum levels of coverage would help.

Increased use of health savings plans (HSAs) would help.

I am sure that those reading this have other and better ideas.

Nanny States is not who we are. As Americans, we should be once again leading the way to solutions to a worldwide problem, not embracing failed European ideas.

Alan Felts

Peachtree City, Ga.

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