We Desperately Need Medicare for All. These 10 Statistics Prove It.
As the House Rules Committee officially begins discussing Medicare for All, here’s a reminder of the disastrous state of American healthcare.
In These Times Staff
It’s a big week for Medicare for All. Today the House Rules Committee will hold its first-ever congressional hearing to discuss U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s (D-Wash.) Medicare for All Act of 2019, and on Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office will release a report addressing many of the key questions about single-payer healthcare. This discussion couldn’t come soon enough. Here’s a statistical snapshot of the gravity of America’s current healthcare crisis.
- 28,300,000 - People uninsured in the United States in the first quarter of 2018.
- 530,000 - Estimated number of families who file bankruptcy each year due to medical issues and bills
- 44% - Americans who didn’t go to a doctor when they were sick or injured because of cost, according
- 34% - Cancer patients who borrowed money from friends or family to pay for care in 2016
- 79% - Increased death rate for cancer patients who filed for bankruptcy in 2016
- $75,375 - Cost of a heart bypass operation in 2016 in the U.S.
- $15,742 - Cost of a heart bypass operation in 2016 in the Netherlands
- $1,443 - U.S. per capita spending on pharmaceutical costs in 2016, the highest in the world
- 840% - Increase in spending for insulin from 2007 to 2017 on Medicare Part D (Medicare’s prescription drug plan)
- $5,110,000,000,000 - Estimated 10-year cost savings of the single-payer healthcare system proposed in Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All Act
