RooseveltFranklin D., in his State of the Union Address of January 11, 1944, Declared that all Americans “have the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.”During the presidential debate held in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 7, 2008, Obama maintained that “I think [health care] should be a right for every American.”.
2.
However, this figure does not include Medicare's share, which is substantially greater than 3.1%, of general governmental administrative expenses. See MatthewsM., Medicare's Hidden Administrative Costs: A Comparison of Medicare and the Private Sector (Alexdandria, VA: The Council for Affordable Insurance, 2006).
3.
ZycherB., Private Health Insurance: Would a Single Payer System Save Enough to Cover the Costs of the Uninsured?, Medical Progress Report No. 5 (New York: Center for Medical Progress of the Manhattan Institute, 2007).
4.
WoodhandlerS.CampbellT.HimmelsteinD., “Costs of Health Care Administration in the United States and Canada,”New England Journal of Medicine349 (August 21, 2003): 768–775.
5.
For a comprehensive survey of the Canadian health care system and its limitations, see SkinnerB. J., Canadian Health Policy Failures: What's Wrong? Who Gets Hurt? Why Nothing Changes (Vancouver: Fraser Institute, 2009).
6.
See United States Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2010): 100 (Table 132).
7.
McKinsey & Company estimated that in 2006 health administration and insurance costs accounted for $145 billion while total health care spending came to $2,053 billion. This amounts to 7.06%. McKinsey & Company, Accounting for the Cost of US Health Care: A New Look at Why Americans Spend More: Executive Summary, December 2008, at 14.
Testimony of Lewis Morris, Chief Counsel, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on Reducing Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in Medicare, before the Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Health, Subcommittee on Oversight, House of Representatives, April 19, 2011, available at <http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2010/06/t20100615c.html> (last visited August 17, 2012).
See EhrenreichJ., “Toward a Healing Society,” in PaulE. F.RussoP. A.Jr., Public Policy: Issues, Analysis, and Ideology (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers, Inc., 1982): At 186–197.
12.
The Wall Street Journal on August 23, 2009, reported that the executive vice president of the American Association of Retired Persons, Mr. John Rother, noted that the annual cost for an individual plan for a 25-year old man in New Jersey in 2006Was $5.880, while a similar plan in Kentucky would have cost $1,000. See “The Compeition Cure,” Wall Street Journal, available at <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550604574360923109310680.html> (last visited August 17, 2012).
13.
MaddisonA., The World Economy: Historical Statistics (Development Center Studies: Paris: Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, 2003), and Historical Statistics for the World Economy, 1:2003 A.D. show the following GDP for the three nations: (1) Japan: 1946: 1,444; 2003: 21,218; (2) South Korea: 1946: 686; 2003: 15,732; and (3) China: 1950: 448; 1972: 802; 1978: 978; 2003: 4,803. See <www.ggdc.net/…/Historical_Statistics/horizontal-file_03–2007.xls>(last visited June 24, 2011).
14.
The Tax Foundation'sSpecial Report (no. 190) on Tax Freedom Day, dated March 2011, which calculates that in 2011 Americans will have paid all their taxes by April 12.
15.
Giving USA Foundation, Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University, June 9, 2010. The National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute reports that public charities in 2009had revenues of 1.373 trillion dollars, and of this number, 54%, or $741 billion, were devoted to health.
