• Chart: We are an insurance conglomerate

      11/22/2013
      Austin Frakt

    A very good chart on the federal budget from The Committee for a Responsible Federal Government:

    ins conglomerate

    @afrakt

     
      Health Policy
      federal budget
    item.php

    • by Jon on November 22nd, 2013 at 08:54

      How does that compare to the percentage of “government insurance” spending by other developed countries?

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    • by robert aylward on November 22nd, 2013 at 09:47

      “All Else” is shrinking relative to “Insurance” because appropriations for “All Else” are shrinking while the population is aging. At least shrinking today and aging today. Maybe tomorrow appropriations for “All Else” will be expanding, and the two lines will converge and the line for “All Else” will cross the line for “Insurance”. I suppose this is a good chart if things always remain the same. Of course, the one constant in life is change.

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    • by Mark Spohr on November 22nd, 2013 at 12:30

      This looks like a good trend since most of the insurance covers social support programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security.
      We still spend too much on our war machine and hopefully that will decline in the future.

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    • by Jeff Nelson on November 22nd, 2013 at 13:23

      Yes – Paul Krugman has often stated in his articles and blog that the US government is basically an insurance company with an army (or an army with an insurance company, I forget which). All other spending categories pale in comparison.

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    • by Floccina on November 23rd, 2013 at 18:32

      I do not consider most of SS as insurance. If it were insurance I would think it would pay out the same amount to all retirees.

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