Worth a lot of money

Last night the Congressional Budget Office leaked its cost numbers for the Senate health insurance reform bill: $849 billion over ten years. Move that decimal point over to the left and that's almost $85 billion a year. Sound like a lot of money? It is. Here's what else costs a lot of money:

Social Security: $612 billion a year

Iraq War: $117 billion a year

NASA annual budget: $19 billion

Interest payments on the national debt: $249 billion a year

All national defense spending: $613 billion a year

Department of Transportation: $68 billion

Microsoft annual revenue: $58 billion

UnitedHealth Group annual revenue: $81 billion

Aetna Inc. annual income: $31 billion

Humana Inc. annual revenue: $29 billion

ExxonMobil annual revenue: $477 billion

Wal-Mart annual revenue: $406 billion

American's annual spending on tobacco products: $89 billion

Americans annual alcohol expenditures: $97 billion

American's annual spending on health care: $2,200 billion ($2.2 trillion)

My point? A lot of big, important things (roads, exploration, defense, secure retirement for senior citizens) cost a lot of money. But, of all the things we choose to pool our tax money together and buy, health care may just be the most important.

We pool our money together to make sure the elderly have some kind of retirement fund (Social Security) and free health care in their golden years (Medicare). We all pitch-in to explore outer space (NASA). Of course, we gladly contribute a hefty sum to make sure we're safe at night (defense). And we all necessarily pay a little each for freeways and air traffic control systems (Dept. of Transportation).

But, so far, the insurance industry has kept us from deciding to pool our money together to buy adequate health care for almost a quarter of our population.

To come clean, I'm perfectly happy with my current health insurance arrangement. I pay a modest co-pay when I go to the doctor's office and my premiums are a little over $2,000 a year. But that's just for me—a (relatively) young and healthy 34 year-old man. But what if you're a woman who just found out she's pregnant? Or a middle-school kid with diabetes? Or you lose your job and can barely make the mortgage payment? Then finding reasonably-priced, adequate health care coverage is impossible.

Does this mean, under a national health care plan, that we're all going to get better care for less money? Maybe not. I imagine there will be less access to care like I've enjoyed in the private system. I might have to wait a few extra minutes in the waiting room. I may have to endure government bureaucratic headaches as I navigate a new national health insurance plan. But so will everyone else—because they will have access to care. And that's worth it.