Health Insurance Reform | A $5,400 Metaphor

In this simple model, if US taxpayers had been covered by Medicare instead of private insurance we would pay about $7,000 in family premiums instead of the $12,400 we spent in 2006 for comparable services.

That's $5,400 less...about 45%.

Paying $7,000 for health care instead of $12,400 would have been accomplished mainly through the mechanism of higher taxes.

But taxpayers would have had an additional $5,400 in 2006 to spend or save at our discretion.

All us Costco members know the benefits of spending 45% less for quality merchandise we could buy at full retail elsewhere.

We don't mind paying the modest price of a Costco membership to enjoy that benefit. In fact, we think we're pretty smart to do so.