Many believe that every American should have access to affordable healthcare, regardless of their employment or income. While this seems like a noble cause, the question remains whether or not, with current national healthcare costs, the United States even afford affordable healthcare. The crunching of numbers shows that more drastic change may be needed before a viable solution is possible.
According to 2009 Census data, the current yearly expenditure for healthcare in the United States is about 2.5 trillion dollars and rises by just over 4% per year. Dividing that by the total population of the United States during that census year, it estimates the cost to average out to $8,806 a year per person. The 2010 Census recorded the per capita income to be $27,401. By these numbers, the average person would be responsible to give 32% of their income to sustain national healthcare. Another way to look at it is by household. With 112,611,029 households reported in the same census, this would put the total healthcare cost per household at $22,200 per year.
Perhaps we are looking for a viable solution too much in the wrong place. Maybe the solution should start at the fact that the United States spends 50% more on per capita healthcare than the next closest country, and over 16% of its GDP on healthcare, while the next closest country, France, spends only a little more than 11%. This all likely being a symptom of allowing limited healthcare coverage to leave the cost of healthcare practices relatively unchecked by normal economic balances.
The questions remains irrevocably how to allow the maximum number of people affordable and effective healthcare, but maybe we are only looking at one end of the scale. Instead of just looking at how we can help the average American raise enough money to meet the high costs of healthcare, maybe we should also look at how to bring healthcare costs down to a level that the nation can afford. Clearly nationalizing our current healthcare is not a sustainable solution to maximizing coverage. The solution may come through a symbiotic relationship between more charitable citizens who will be willing to help others meet the mark, and incentive for healthcare providers to develop lower cost practices.