These numbers are from the Congressional Research Office.
* 45.7 million U.S. residents have no health insurance.
* 7.2 percent of the nation’s GDP went toward health care in the 1970s. That number has increased to 17 percent by 2009.
* From 1980 to 2007, medical costs increased 4.7 percent a year, not bad until you consider that the consumer price index only increased 2.5 percent annually over the same time.
* Insurance premiums increased nationally 114 percent between 1999 and 2007 alone.
* Medicaid makes up 20 percent of the federal budget and 27 percent of the amount spent annually on health care nationally.
These numbers are similar, but they come from the National Coalition on Healthcare. Why doesn’t somebody ask Jim DeMint about these?
* Total healthcare spending was $2.4 trillion in 2007, or $7,900 per person. Total healthcare spending represented 17 percent of gross domestic product.
* US healthcare spending is expected to reach $4.3 trillion in 2017, or 20 [percent of GDP.
* Healthcare spending accounted for 10.9 percent of GDP in Switzerland; 10.7 percent in German; 9.7 percent in Canada; and 9.5 percent in France, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
* In 2008, employer health insurance premiums increased by 5 percent, two times the rate of inflation. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $12,700. The average premium for single coverage averaged more than $4,700.
* Healthcare spending is 4.3 times the amount spend on national defense.
* About 47 million Americans are uninsured.
* Since 1999, employment-based health insurance premiums have increased 120 percent, compared with cumulative inflation of 44 percent and cumulative wage growth of 29 percent during the same period.
* Health insurance permiums are the fastest growing cost component for employers.
* The average employee contribution to company-provided health insurance has increased more than 120 percent since 2000. Average out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-payments and medications and co-insurance for physician and hospital visits rose 115 percent during the same period.
* The US spends six times more per capita on the administration of the healthcare system than its peer Western European nations.