> -----Original Message----- > From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On > Behalf Of John Williams > Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 12:32 PM > To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion > Subject: Re: WeChooseTheMoon > > On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 8:58 PM, Doug Pensinger<brig...@zo.com> wrote: > > > Absolutely not, but isn't that how the free market works; the people > with > > money/power decide what's in the best interest of the people they > control? > > People they control? Huh? Politicians and regulators control people. > Free market allows people to choose for themselves. > > > Then we have the ringing success of the U.S. health care system to tell > us > > how well the free market works for sick people. > > The US health care system is not a free market. Medicare and Medicaid > make up more than 50% of US health care spending
Hmm, my sources (one is HHS) indicate that, as of the last measure, Medicaid spending was to be ~400 billion in 2008, according to Keiser, Medicare was $410 billion in 2007, and with several projected increases of 7% for 2007 to 2008 it would be about ~430 billion. Total healthcare costs for the US in 2008 was about 2.4 trillion, according to several sources. So, were talking about Medicare and Medicaid making up roughly 35% of total costs. How did you get > 1.2 trillion for Medicare and Medicaid? Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
