Pic Of The Moment: Today's Big Number

[EvolveOrConvolve]

18. It's a small step in the right direction, but it's not really a big number

At $330 million, it's bout $1 per American. And with total expenditures of $2.7 billion dollars* on health care, it's about 0.012% of the total cost of health care. It's a tiny, statistically meaningless number. Yes, it's great that more people are insured, but it's appalling that our health care systems continue to have profit as their primary mission.

To put it in perspective: I've seem estimates that a single payer system would reduce the cost of health care by up to 20%, a potential saving per American of about $1,500 per year. Very few so called fiscal "conservatives" will admit that nationalizing health care is the most cost effective solution.

* Gov't breakdown of health care costs in 2012: http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/highlights.pdf