re: Bernie said the average american pays $12,000 a year in Healthcare

quote:

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Bernie said the average american pays $12,000 a year in Healthcare
do people actually believe this guy?

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Yes, they do. Because they believe the numbers forming basis for Bernie's claims.

Where do Bernie's numbers come from?

CMS runs an annual calculation known as the National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA). The NHEA is source of claims of annual US Health Care expenditures. E.g., According to CMS's NHEA, the US spent $3.65Trillion on health care last year. CMS is also a source of the claim that up to 27 million uninsured Americans meaning 300 million are paying for care.

So Bernie is simply taking those numbers and doing simple math:
$3.65T/300M people = $12,167 per person

More About the NHEA:

The NHEA measures annual U.S. expenditures for public health activities, government administration, the net cost of health insurance, all investment related to health care including stocks, bonds, and speculation, and all retail, and retail outlet sales.

Buy one of Brett Farve's Copperfit bands, or the latest male enhancement scam pill at GNC, or a massager at CVS and your bucks are part of the $3.65T. Buy a hover-round scooter chair, a home stair lift, or Walmart's Hearing Assist junk (as seen on TV!), and you're part of the $3.65T. Vitamins, reading glasses, diet pills . . . all part of the $3.65T.

Needless to say, no other country measures things that way. So it substantially inflates US healthcare spending vs that in other countries where measures reference only true medical spending.

Put bluntly, NHEA calculations are bullshite propaganda.
They have been for all 60 years of their existence.

They served as part of the rationale for formation of Medicare/Medicaid in the 1960's. They are now the reason Bernie can claim a family of four would average >$48,000 in annual healthcare expenses.

The numbers sound way off. Because they are way off.