Low taxes, high health costs make US choices tough

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GLOBAL_ECONOMY_TRACKER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-07-27-04-01-35

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wealthy countries all over the world are dealing with debts and strained budgets as they mop up after the Great Recession and brace for the budget-busting retirement of the baby boomer generation.

But the United States is in a bigger fix than almost anyone else.

The U.S. federal debt was equal to 95 percent of the overall economy in the first three months of 2011, the fifth-highest on the Associated Press Global Economy Tracker, an analysis of economic and financial data from 30 of the biggest economies.

Every year that the U.S. government spends more than it collects in taxes, it records an annual budget deficit. The $14.3 trillion debt is the sum of all annual deficits and surpluses.

[dkf]

1. "Health care costs are astronomical - and still rising."

Aka Medicare is a problem.

"When it comes to health care, the U.S. spends the equivalent of 17.4 percent of its GDP - by far the highest percentage among wealthy nations. The next highest is the Netherlands, where health care spending equals 12 percent of GDP. Among the 34 wealthy countries that belong to the OECD, health care spending averages less than 9.5 percent of GDP."

Our entire health care system is broken. None of it can stay the same.