Building the case for healthcare reform

The statistics are there.

"even America's largely private system costs the government more per capita than do the Swedish, British, French, Spanish, Dutch, etc. systems. America's health care system is so inefficient that only the outlier cases of Iceland and Norway wind up paying more in taxes for their health care than we do.

And that, of course, is just the direct cost in taxes. As Kieran's post showed, the difference in overall cost is just enormous. And on top of that you've got to consider the permanent drain on the economy created by an employer-based health care system that reduces labor flexibility and a tax code that distorts spending and compensation priorities in favor of ever-greater health care spending."