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I think there are several reasons why Americans are not
aware of the large costs incurred by the government. First,
there are a lot of indirect costs that we see with taxes. In
2017, American households spent $980 billion in healthcare
costs, which is around $3,200 a person. However, this is
only one third of the nations $2.9 trillion in personal
healthcare costs (Moeller, 2019). Turns out, however, that
federal and state governments paid out $1.7 trillion for
healthcare mostly for Medicare and Medicaid, which comes
out in our taxes as Americans (Moeller, 2019).+ Secondly,
many receive health insurance through their employers,
which pay a brunt of the premiums for their employees.
However, a lot of companies use this as a trade o- for
higher salaries. Lastly, most Americans look at the cost
they+directl y+have to spend rather than what the
government is doing in supplementing the costs. In 2006, it
was reported in a survey that 65% of Americans said they
pay too much for health insurance and only 17% said they
paid too little (Blendon, Brodie, Benson, Altman & Buhr,
2006).
Truly, I haven't really thought about government spending,
but what I spend on healthcare for my family. After
researching this week on true government spending, I was
astonished to see how much the government does spend on
healthcare. However, with what the government spends on
healthcare, insurance in our country is out of control with
premiums and higher healthcare costs which in turn
increases the government spending. Its a vicious cycle. I
don't have an answer on how to 5x this, but as health costs
rise, insurance premiums will rise and so will the overall
spending from the government.+
References:+
Blendon, R. J., Brodie, M., Benson, J. M., Altman, D. E., &
Buhr, T. (2006). Americans' views of health care costs,
access, and quality.+The Milbank quarterly,+84(4), 623–
657.+https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0009.2006.00463.x
Moeller, P. (2019, February 20).+How Americans spend much
more on health care than they realize. PBS. Retrieved
February 10, 2022,
from+https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-
sense/how-americans-spend-much-more-on-health-care-
than-they-realize
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