Healthcare cost comparisons

Healthcare eats up more than 16 percent of U.S. GNP. The average for other industrialized nations, all of which guarantee their citizens healthcare, is 11 percent. Here's what it looks like in a bar graph. Note how low Britain's spending is — it's too bad they don't push it up a point or two, so that they could eliminate the waits.

On the other hand, with all that the U.S. spends, why on earth don't we all have gold-plated coverage?

Now take a look at the dollars spent, per person. These numbers are a couple years old — we now spend more than $7,000 per person. That's including the 17 percent of us who have no healthcare coverage, and for the 17 percent or more of us who are underinsured. We already spend the money. Let's redirect it into healthcare and away from insurance administration and profits.