Can Americans Afford Healthcare?

There is a lot of discussion about how expensive healthcare is. For the average American, health care costs represent 6% of total spending according to a New York Times piece published on May 3, 2008. This may seem like a lot, but here are some of the other allocations made by the elusive "average American".

Haircuts: 0.6%
Wine, beer and liquor at home: 0.6%
Gasoline: 5.2%
Cable: 1.2%
Cellphone service: 1.0%
Pets, pet care, pet supplies: 0.7%
Restaurants: 3.0%

The complete analysis, including inflationary figures, in a really cool graphic can be found at the below link.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/05/03/business/20080403_SPENDING_GRAPHIC.html?ex=1210651200&en=97b0766abb4f5ee0&ei=5070

Maybe rather than trying to nationalize health insurance and health care (which will be a total disaster, reference Canada and the United Kingdom) people could cut back to basic cable, drive more efficient cars, eat at home more often and start exercising.

My bet is that a lot of the people who don't have health insurance do in fact have cable or satellite TV, go on vacation, and have at least one flat panel television in their home or apartment.

So, rather than trying to pretend that healthcare, and by association good health, is a right we should let people benefit (or suffer) as a result of their personal choices. If you eat Super Size fries and Big Macs every day your health insurance should cost more! If you'd rather buy a flat panel TV than health insurance that's cool, but don't expect taxpayers to subsidize your triple bypass.

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