Did you think that the mostly privatized health care system in America means we spend less on care and have lower taxes than countries which provide universal coverage?

These charts help to put the U.S. healthcare system in perspective (link):

Not only is the richest nation in the world the only industrialized nation not to guarantee care to all its citizens, the limited system that’s in place is massively inefficient.

Hence the public outcry in favor of an overhaul:

Only 24 percent said they were satisfied with President Bush’s handling of the health insurance issue, despite his recent initiatives, and 62 percent said the Democrats were more likely to improve the health care system.

Americans showed a striking willingness in the poll to make tradeoffs to guarantee health insurance for all, including paying as much as $500 more in taxes a year and forgoing future tax cuts….

Nearly 47 million people in the United States, or more than 15 percent of the population, now go without health insurance, up 6.8 million since 2000.

hayadoon wrote earlier that Japan’s system of universal coverage might be a good model to emulate in America. These statistics, at least, seem to indicate that the Japanese get more bang for their Yen. In any case, healthcare will be a big issue in the 2008 campaigns, so expect Republicans to try to pull wool over our eyes by proposing sellouts to the private insurance industry in the guise of expanded access.