Wild Card blog 3

In this blog I want to touch on the amount of money the United States spends annually on health care, and compare it with another country.  The figures are very interesting and illustrate the vast scale of money spent on health care.  It also brings into focus how difficult it is to think that by just throwing money, and new programs at the health care system, that somehow our problems will be alleviated.  The money spent annually is tremendous and when you add it up over the years; wow.

 According to the CMS the National Health Expenditure for 2006 was $2,105.5 trillion dollars (#1.www.cms.hhs.gov).  The CMS forecast projection was to see an increase in the National Health Expenditure for 2007 by 6.7% (#1.www.cms.hhs.gov).  The math shows when you multiply 6.7% by the expenditure figure from 2006 of $2.105 trillion, you reach an estimated figure of  $2.246 trillion dollars.  The CMS projected figure for 2007 is $2.245 trillion (#1.www.cms.hhs.gov).  

Comparison of the U.S. figures with that of the Netherlands shows that in 2006 the Netherlands GDP was $597.23 billion (#3.www.oecd.org).  A cost breakdown for the national health expenditure for the Netherlands shows they spend $55.54 billion per year (#2.www.oecd.org)

GDP (gross domestic product) is defined as, “the market value of the final goods and services produced in a country during a given period” (#4.Bernanke & Frank G-3).  According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the United States GDP for 2005 was $12,421 trillion, and $13,807 trillion for 2007 (#5).  The percentage of the GDP that was spent on health care was 15.9%, or $1,973 trillion for 2005, and a projected 16.3%, or $2,245 trillion for 2007 (#1.www.cms.hhs.gov).

I then compared the 2007 projected 16.3% health care expenditure of the United States with that of the Netherlands recorded 2006 health care expenditure of 9.3% (#2.www.oecd.org).  Also note that in 2006 the Netherlands spent an average of $3391 per capita on health care, versus the United States average of $6714 per capita in 2006 (#2.www.oecd.org).

 

Works Cited

1)   Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2008).  Retrieved Sep 13, 2008 from:http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/Downloads/proj2007.pdf

2)   Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (2008).  Retrieved Sep 13, 2008 from: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/46/8/38980162.pdf

3)   Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (2008).  Retrieved Sep 13, 2008 from: http://stats.oecd.org/wbos/viewhtml.aspx?queryname=474&querytype=view&lang=en

4)   Bernanke, B.,  & Frank, R.  (2007).  Principles of Macro Economics: Third Edition.  Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

5)   Bureau of Economic Analysis.  (2008).  Retrieved Sep 13, 2008 from:http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm#gdp