A few factoids for you to use and be amused by.

• 15th: Where liberals claim the US ranks in life expectancy.
• 1st: Actual life expectancy rank if you control for deaths due to traffic accidents and homicides. That’s right, the US ranks number one among OECD countries with a mean life expectancy of 76.9 years.
• $12,680: Annual family health care insurance premium in 2008, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. If employer-based, a 70/30 employer/employee cost split is typical.
• $9,827: The annual hidden tax imposed by defensive medicine on a typical family of 4 in the US.
• $43 Million: Total contributions by attorneys to the 2008 Obama for president campaign.
• 1300%: Increase in TV ad spending by Malpractice attorneys from 2004 to 2008.
• 3.7%: Average annual growth rate in real health care spending per capita in the US, 1994-2004 (source: Comparative Health Systems: Global Perspectives, by James A. Johnson & Carleen Stoskopf, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2009).
• 3.8%: Average annual growth rate in real health care spending per capita among all OECD countriees, 1994-2004 ( Johnson & Stoskopf, 2009)
• 38%: Percent of elective surgery patients that waited for more than 4 months for their procedure within the British National Health System, during the 1999-2001 period. (source: Tackling Excessive Waiting Times for Elective Surgery: A Comparison of Policies in Twelve OECD Countries by Jeremy Hurst and Luigi Siciliani, 2002. Comparative international data is scarce.)
• 27%: Percent of elective surgery patients that waited for more than 4 months for their procedure in Canada, 1999-2001 (Hurst and Siciliami, 2002.)
• 5%: Percent of elective surgery patients that waited for more than 4 months for their procedure in the US, 1999-2001 (Hurst and Siciliami, 2002.)
• 30 Million: The new politically correct number of uninsured Americans, replacing the previous 47 Million estimate.
• 10-20 Million: The probable real number of uninsured Americans
• 0: Number of illegal immigrants President Obama claims will be covered under the proposed legislation.
• 0: The number of words in HR 3200 that exclude non-citizens. (Update 12-Sept-2009: This may change as a result of Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst during President Obama’s speech on 9/9.)
• 44: According to Drudge, the number of moderate Members of the Democrat Caucus that have gone on the record in opposition to the current health care bill in the House.
• 57: Also according to Drudge, the number of Liberal Democrats who will vote no on a bill without a strong public option.
• 0%: The chances for passage of the Reform Bill unless Speaker Pelosi knows something we don’t.
• 52%: Percentage of the public that disapproves of how the President has handled health care reform.
• 49%: Percentage of the public that opposes the health care plans currently in Congress.
• $200 Billion+: The annual increase in the budget deficit created by the current House proposals, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
• $200 Billion+: The amount of new taxes that will have to be raised annually to meet President Obama’s pledge for a deficit-neutral plan.
• 0: According to the President, the proposed plan’s tax impact on families making less than $250,000 per year.
• 4: The number of new taxes that impact the middle class in HR 3200.

* Update

• 3,634:The projected number of years it will take President Obama’s health care reform proposals to achieve the $4 Trillion federal deficit reduction he claims his plans will realize “over the long term” by reducing projected annual industry-wide health care spending by one-tenth of one percent.

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