this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2024
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[–] WiseThat@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

In Canada, we spend about $8k on healthcare each year per person. This is mostly taxes, but also partly co-pays and private employer insurance.

America spends about $14k per person.

In both the USA and Canada, about 28% of government spending goes to healthcare. In the US that means about ~6k in total government budget from your tax dollars is spent on healthcare, while in Canada it's about ~7K.

The difference is that the average american also pays an additional $8K in their own after-tax dollars from their pockets in insurance and direct-billing for services.

And for the privilege of paying nearly twice as much, the Americans have a life expectancy of 6 years less than Canadians (76.3 vs 82.6)