Health Careless

The U.S. spends on health care the equivalent of 300% of India's gross domestic product although India has three times the population. So the Americans on health care spend three times the dollars the Indians spend on everything--food, housing, military, health care--everything. Last year the American venture capitalists invested 410 million dollars on health care information technology compared with 30 billion dollars in social media and other technology.

One third of American health dollars go to the 5% of the population that dies every year, usually after an intense 2-3 month illness. Another 30% goes to the 5% with chronic illnesses. 90% of rest of the population (the healthy ones) consumes the last third.

Now there may be some wonderful medical breakthroughs coming, there may be some frauds uncovered, the government may introduce new efficiencies (although they have never done so before) but it is clear that some hard decisions will have to be made. After all the promises made, one might even say cruel.