The cost of health care has been debated for months, even years. So how much does the U.S. spend on it compared to other countries?
PolitiFact Wisconsin puts one claim about that to the Truth-O-Meter.
Congressional newcomer Rep. Mike Gallagher has received a crash course on health care since taking office in January.
In a recent interview, the Green Bay Republican made a claim about how much the U.S. spends on health care compared to other countries.
"He says that the United States spends 18 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care. Whereas the average industrialized nations is about 8 percent," said Tom Kertscher with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
PolitiFact Wisconsin looked at numbers from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The numbers show the average industrialized nation actually spent about 10.6 percent of its GDP on health care in 20-15. The U-S spent 17.8 percent.
Gallagher makes his point as Republicans try to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
"He's (Gallagher) arguing that rather than talking about health insurance reform, we ought to be talking about health care reform," Kertscher said, "because of how much we spend on health care."
PolitiFact Wisconsin says it makes sense that the U.S. spends more for health care.
"One of the reasons the United States spends more, the indications are that we have more health problems at least on some levels," Kertscher said. "There's more obesity, there's more things like diabetes, heart disease."
PolitiFact Wisconsin rated his claim Mostly True.
