Shock! We ALREADY Spend More on Healthcare Than Other Countries!

According to Americans for Tax Reform, the US government already spends more money per capita on health care than countries with socialized medicine. Italy, Japan, Australia, Ireland, UK, Sweden, Germany, Canada, and France all spend less than the over $3,000 the US pays out for various government programs. When you think about it, it becomes painfully obvious that the answer to health care costs in the USA is NOT to add more government programs, but to reduce them. Only free market competition can improve products while reducing costs.

If the government had been in control of personal computer market back in the late seventies, the cost of the average home computer would be several thousand dollars by now, and we probably would not be too far advanced beyond the 48kb of memory that the first Apples had. We purchased an Apple II in 1978 for $2,638 (that would be $8,726.97 in today's dollars) plus shipping costs. The few programs that were available at the time were on black disks that really were floppy. We had to insert a different disk each time we wanted to use a different program.

Just 21 years later, the cheapest Apple costs $999 (or $301.98 in 1978 dollars) and comes with 2gb of memory, plus audio, video, color, Internet, and wireless capabilities. And it's portable. That represents an increase in memory of 6 degrees of magnitude - from thousands to billions, not to mention all the ancillary improvements.

We can all thank heaven for the competition between Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak. And pray that more free market competition will be allowed in health care, not a one payer system that only cuts costs by eliminating services.