universal healthcare

[Jester]

So the house of representatvives voted for this bill, which is a historic change in the US healthcare system.

The costs of these reforms (don't know how they calculated that) is 938 billion dollars the first 10 years.
I think to make this healthcare system work (we have discussed this before) other things need to change. If no good cost savings can be made this new system will kill the economy.
(but on the other hand, bank bail-outs and wars also cost these amounts of money so nothing really changes there)
Maybe stopping the employer paid health insurance would be a good idea. It seems it will get cheaper for companies to stay in the US and work with american employees, compared to moving to another country where they don't need to pay healthcare benefits.

I disagree with you on several fronts. First, your title is misleading - this is not universal health care.

Second, 938 billion dollars in the first 10 years amounts to only 93.8 billion dollars annually. The government budget, even in a normal year with no stimulus, is somewhere in the neighbourhood of three trillion dollars. The chances of this system "killing the economy" even with zero cost improvements is low. At most, tax revenue would have to increase by 3 or 4%.

Third, the CBO scores this as saving money vs. the status quo of doing nothing - about 138 billion over that same period of 10 years, and over a trillion in the decade after that. It certainly doesn't save as much as I would like, or as much as is necessary in the long term, but discussing this bill as a net cost is probably deceptive.

But yes, this is a historic moment. Health care was famously untouchable. Now finally the ball has started rolling.

-Jester