Hacker News Reader

Comment by silversconfused | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if it would cost as much as the F35 program. I'd rather pay for a junkie's health care than a token national alliance tech project jet that no one needs.

View on HN

Estimates for the cost of the F35 program vary widely, but a decent guess is 1-1.5 trillion over 50 years or 20 to 30 billion a year.

The US currently spends ~3.5 trillion per year on health care.

So yes, taxpayer funded health care would cost as much as the F35 program. In fact, quite a bit more. Perhaps 150x more per year.

Yes, but we're already paying that and we're spending more than everyone else. [1] Universal healthcare isn't just morally justified, it's also financially justified. The only justifications for our insane system are regulatory capture or sadism.

1. https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-...

You seem to be assuming that introducing universal healthcare in the US would bring down costs. I've never seen any evidence whatsoever to support that claim.

You could look at every other country that did it for the evidence you seek, provided you aren't limiting to the pool of evidence "in the US".

Changing the country changes too many variables at once. The US also spends a whole lot more on infrastructure than virtually everyone else in the world, and there's no obvious reason why. Just assuming that universal healthcare would solve all of our cost problems is comically optimistic.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com