Comment by inferiorhuman
1 day ago
And FWIW, US Medicare spending alone is shaping up to grow to almost
as much as some EU nations on a % of GDP basis
Your source puts Austria, France, and Germany at the top, or roughly 11–13% of GDP.
https://www.bea.gov/news/2023/gross-domestic-product-fourth-...
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10830
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis puts the 2022 GDP at $25.46 trillion ($25,460 billion). Congress puts 2022 spending on private health insurance at $1,290 billion (5%) and Medicare at $944 billion (3.7% of GDP).
Yes, we are tracking to grow to as much as some not all or most. Emphasis on tracking to grow which you should see the source for 2033 forecast.
The fact that one program (Medicare) is growing to be as large as the NHE should be cause for pause.
So your argument is that Medicare spending might potentially approach the same proportion of the GDP as a European country that doesn't spend a lot on its healthcare?
Pretty much. And that's just one program that services a small portion of the population. The issue is we can't make this level of spending work, why should we believe spending more money will be successful?