PUTTING THE COST OF A STRONG PUBLIC OPTION IN PERSPECTIVE

It is important to try to understand facts. It is a fact that the current estimate of the cost of a strong public option in Healthcare Reform would cost about one trillion dollars over the next ten years. That, of course, seems like a whopping amount of money and the opponents of the public option like to remind us of the cost at every possible opportunity. But one trillion dollars over ten years IS LESS THAN ONE PER CENT OF THE PROJECTED GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) and less than 5 per cent of the Federal Budget. The projected savings in Healthcare over the next ten years are expected to be greater than 1 per cent of GDP. So, let's use per centages instead of dollar signs or, at least, in addition to dollar signs as this debate goes on.