[gaius]

Here in the UK the welfare budget is nearly 6x the defense budget. Healthcare is around 3x. We're talking serious money here. Probably we spend as much on welfare and healthcare as the US spends on the military. And the results speak for themselves: chucking money at it is not the solution.

Often in London a homeless person will ask for money to stay in a shelter overnight, but the shelters are free, funded by the local councils, and always have spare beds.

[mmphosis]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_budget

    190 social protection
    105 health
    ---
    295 total health & social
     38 defence
    ===
    519 total

population 62,041,708

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget

    678 social security
    676 medicare & medicaid
    ---
   1354 total health & social
    782 defense
   ====
   3518 total

population 309,921,000

[petercooper]

I had a look at similar numbers a few years back to back up a debate I was having and was surprised. The UK and US spend in the same order of magnitude per capita on public healthcare.

Sadly, though, this isn't good. The US's healthcare budget covers a minority of the population whereas the UK's covers almost everyone. The only reason the US's budget is inflated is due to the extreme inefficiencies and price gouging that are rampant in the US healthcare market.