Last year, I spent the most on ...

Everyone should really check the lifetime maxium on their insurance

Soon, though, you won't have to worry about it. One of the major provisions of PPACA (that's Obamacare to haters) is the elimination of lifetime caps on coverage.

The US got thru its 1920 recession, which was almost as deep as the 1929 one, in 18 months by the austerity route: balanced budget, less spending.

Keynes himself said stimulus spending should be short, targeted, and temporary. None of the 1929 depression or the current stimulus spending has been anything of the sort. Shovel-ready wasn't.

At some point, you run out of money. The Greeks certainly have. The US is about to. A $15T debt so far, project to grow another 2.2T in the next two budgets, is ridiculous. We are spending more per capita now than ever before. Revenue since WW II has never been more than 20% of GDP, even with the 90+% tax brackets of the 1950s, and was in fact highest, 20%, when the highest bracket was lower than today in the last few Clinton years.

When interest payments become one of the biggest budget categories, you need to stop borrowing.

One of my doctors explained it to me as the doctors trying to get what they can from the insurance company. Because the negotiated rate and the amount the insurance company will eventually pay is so vastly smaller than the initial "charge," the doctor is forced to charge an obscene amount because they know that in the end they will not receive anything close to that.

Of course, the next logical question is "What if I don't have insurance?" Fortunately, most sane doctors realize that this is no way to treat the patient and so they will typically work with you and only ask that you pay the "cash" price which is something far closer to reasonable.

The problems arise because the insurance companies don't like this dual pricing and doctors aren't allowed to do it. They do it anyway, by virtue of necessity, but if you press the issue odds are your doctor will tell you how it all works. This lower "cash" price has to be kept secret from the insurance company otherwise they would want that rate as well (and then negotiate it down, of course).

It's just a huge mess. The insurance company is out to screw both doctor and patient. The doctor is trying to get as much compensation as he or she can without (hopefully) gouging their own patients. All parties know what the others are doing because it's not *really* a secret, everybody is unhappy, and the dance goes on...

I should point out that this involves the insurance payouts to a private practice doctor or a doctor who works for a small group. I don't doubt that the dynamics are quite different for hospital-insurance company interactions.

That depends how much one earns.

Minimum wage in the UK works out to about £12,500 a year.
A teacher starts work earning about £24,000 a year.
Someone earning £100,000 is doing well -- a lawyer or doctor etc.
And let's have a footballer earning £2,000,000 a year for comparison. (It's apparently difficult for them to fiddle their taxes and pretend it's offshore income, or whatever people do.)

£12,500 a year person pays 13% tax on their income, £1640. They almost certainly spend more on housing, and perhaps food.
£24,000 pays 22%. £5320 in tax. If they live somewhere expensive (London), or are paying for a lot of house (e.g. for non-earning dependants i.e. children) they're probably spending more on housing.
£100,000 pays 35%. Now we're probably at the point where the largest expense is tax.
£2,000,000 pays 51% (wow!).

All of these people pay 20% VAT on most things and services they buy, although basic food doesn't have this tax -- and the poorer people spend (proportionally) more on food. There's also a local tax, between around £500-£2500 a year per house, depending on the size of your house.

I would recommend that you only pay the minimum on your debts and stuff the rest of what you were planning on paying into savings. Once that savings pot gets a little larger than the rest of your debts, pay them all off in a single payment. This might add a month or two of extra savings to pay back additional interest, but the reduction in risk is well worth it. If you had been doing this and were laid off today, you'd still have enough money to feed your kids and pay all your bills for awhile.

I was suddenly laid off and was luckily doing the above. I had enough money saved that I eventually want back to school for a Masters degree (still working on it). Don't plan to get by on unemployment, your (now stupidly expensive) health insurance (in the USA) will eat up all of that money. I would have committed suicide if I didn't have that savings. It was my first job out of college and a huge blow. Few companies want to hire someone who lost their job just under a year of working and you can't call yourself a new grad after a year out of school (too qualified for recent graduate/entry-level jobs and under qualified for mid-level jobs -> I was actually indirectly told that by a few companies).

Why take the risk if you don't have to? It's only a little more interest you'll have to pay back. That extra interest is almost nothing if you have a good job, but the savings is everything when you don't have a job.

If that person on minimum wage in the UK has a couple of children, their actual take home is likely to be about £25-£30k once tax credits are factored in.

The absurdity of our country at the moment is people who do not work and have never worked still get the tax credits - hence it being easy to pass £26000 in benefits (the proposed cap). Add to that the reduced council tax, free / subsdised other public services and the fact none of this is taxed and you have a ridiculous sitution where someone who has never worked has an income in the top 25-30% of the country.

If you're single, and working, you get shafted into paying for all this.

" It rewards irresponsible spending."

A common misconception. It rewards long term evidence they people, pay off debt they incur.

Now, without proof you can't do that, then yeah your rate will be higher.

I'm not sure why you can' get a card. You have a home, at the very least you should be able to get a 250 card from your bank.
Us it to pay a bill you would pay anyways, and pay the card company immediately afterwords.

Yeah, parts of it are screwed up, and I could go into a lot of detail.
I actually created some of the formulas for TRW.