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Forum Post: Obamacare didn't do that!

Posted 1 year ago on Aug. 24, 2012, 11:01 a.m. EST by JackHall (439)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

Mainstream media may tell us that voters are leaning toward the Romney and Ryan plan to repeal Obamacare. What the mainstream media won’t tell us is where the United States stands in public healthcare and quality of life.

What is the problem with US healthcare? The statistics for healthcare speak loudly. The United States spends more per capita on healthcare than any other country. Almost twice as much as the next country, Norway. Are we twice as healthy as the rest of the world? No.Wikipedia and CNN report our life-expectancy ranks 38th. The CIA Factbook ranks our life-expectancy at 50th. Our infant-mortality or survival rate is ranked at 34th. These numbers must be acceptable to those who want to repeal Obamacare. Being in 34th, or 38th or 50th place in health services places us far behind the European Union, Japan, Indonesia, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Cayman Islands, Bosnia-Herzegovina and dozens of other countries.

Healthcare for profit is the problem. There is the illusion that free enterprise made America great. The flagships of the American economy had been capitalism, credit and consumerism. The American automobile industry is ailing. The financial sector is hobbled by fraud, deregulation, incompetence and corruption. And so is the US healthcare system. The US spends over $2 trillion annually for healthcare and yet millions of Americans have no healthcare coverage at all.

FDR observed that economy of an industrial nation was too complex to be left to a few private interests and unregulated. The US healthcare statistics are the results of private enterprise managing our healthcare system. Republicans are saying it’s alright to spend more than twice the world average for healthcare and have our services ranked no higher than 34th place. Our first step toward healthcare reform is Obamacare and Republicans don’t even want that. Difference between the price and performance of the US healthcare system is profit. This is a healthcare system Wall St would be proud of. We can afford it and must do better. Future generations depend on it.

The economy of the United States is the world's largest national economy. Its nominal GDP was estimated to be over $15 trillion in 2011, approximately a quarter of nominal global GDP. Its GDP at purchasing power parity is the largest in the world, approximately a fifth of global GDP at purchasing power parity. The U.S. economy also maintains a very high level of output. The U.S. is one of the world's wealthiest nations with per capita GDP (PPP) of $48,450, the 6th highest in the world. The U.S. is the largest trading nation in the world. Its four largest export trading partners are as of 2010: Canada, Mexico, China, and Japan.

The economy of the United States is a mixed economy and has maintained a stable overall GDP growth rate, a moderate unemployment rate, and high levels of research and capital investment. It has been the world's largest national economy (not including colonial empires) since at least the 1890s. Most of the economy is classified as services. As of 2012, the country remains the world's largest manufacturer, representing a fifth of the global manufacturing output. Of the world's 500 largest companies, 133 are headquartered in the United States. This is twice the total of any other country.

About 60% of the global currency reserves have been invested in the United States dollar, while 24% have been invested in the euro. The country is one of the world's largest and most influential financial markets. Foreign investments made in the United States total almost $2.4 trillion, which is more than twice that of any other country. American investments in foreign countries total over $3.3 trillion, which is almost twice that of any other country. Total public and private debt was $50.2 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2010, or 3.5 times GDP. The proportion of public debt was about 0.9 times the GDP. Domestic financial assets totaled $131 trillion and domestic financial liabilities totaled $106 trillion. As of 2010, the European Union as a whole was the largest trading partner of the U.S., whereas Canada, China, and Mexico were the largest individual trading nations.

The labor market in the United States has attracted immigrants from all over the world and its net migration rate is among the highest in the world. The United States is one of the top-performing economies in studies such as the Ease of Doing Business Index, the Global Competitiveness Report, and others.

We have nothing to fear but fear itself. It’s more important to establish universal healthcare as brave pioneers than to profit from not covering the healthcare needs of our citizens.

Life Expectancy CNN http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/06/15/life.expectancy.united.states/index.html [right click]

Life Expectancy CIA https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html [right click]

Healthcare expenditures per capita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expenditure_(PPP)_per_capita [right click]

Life_span country wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy [right click]

Why are healthcare costs so high in USA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgxGOOZBzvg [right click]



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