There has been much talk about the 4.8 million people (1.4 million in Florida and 750,000 in New York state) who will lose their Obamacare health insurance if the tax credits now in place expire. Many more will see their premiums double. And, this is not even to speak of the millions of people who will lose Medicaid coverage under the Republican plan.
But, as with many discussions of the insecurities in American life, a bit of context exposes that today’s outrages are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of insecurities in American life.
As the KFF chart above shows, the cost of family health insurance has more than tripled over 25 years. Even for people with employer-sponsored health insurance, their contributions have risen along a similarly vertiginous trajectory.
Health Outcomes
Meanwhile, the US ranked 33rd out of 50 countries in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) data for life expectancy. Our track record on maternal health, neonatal health, chronic illnesses and more is similarly dismal. This is a country whose economy, viewed on a per-person basis, makes us the richest large country on earth.
But, we have been outstanding at producing billionaires. The Forbes billionaires list in 2019 counted 607 billionaires in the US. By April 2024, this number had grown by 34 percent to 813. In dollar terms, US billionaires held $3.1 trillion in net wealth in 2019. This figure ballooned by 117 percent to $6.7 trillion by the end of 2024.
A sad state of affairs. We could pick one of our developed country competitor’s healthcare systems and have healthcare as a right at forty percent less cost with world-class results.
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