American Health Care’s Good Old Days

[zeos3]

http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/american-health-care-s-good-old-days-20131108


From the Harvard Business Review in November: "In 1980, the national expenditure on health care in the United States was just over 9% of Gross Domestic Product. Today it accounts for nearly twice that — close to 18%.… Health insurance premiums rose four and half times faster than the rate of inflation over the same period."

From Kaiser Health News in 2009: "Employers struggling with the steady rise of health insurance costs -- which in 2009 increased 5 percent to an average of $13,375 for family coverage -- are passing on more of the expense to their workers through higher deductibles and co-payments, according to survey released today."

From McClatchy in 2009: "The average cost of job-based family health insurance climbed 5 percent to $13,375 in 2009, making this the 10th straight year that health care premiums have increased faster than workers' wages and overall inflation have. Insurance costs have increased 131 percent since 1999 ... that supercharged growth rate far outpaces the 38 percent increase in wages and 28 percent growth of inflation over the same period."

From The New York Times in 2008: "Since the recession of 2001, the employee's average cost of an annual health care premium for family coverage has nearly doubled — to $3,300, up from $1,800 — while incomes have come nowhere close to keeping up. Factor in other out-of-pocket medical costs, and the portion of the average American household's income that goes toward health care has risen about 12 percent, according to the consulting and accounting firm Deloitte, and is now approaching one-fifth of the average household's spending."

[JanT]

1. great article

i really enjoyed reading about the past health care that this country has gone thru. the ACA is not perfect. i was really, really disappointed when the single payer plan was taken off the table. I keep thinking that at least this is a start. Will it come about that we will join the rest of the civilized world and have universal health care? I hope so. Just maybe i'll live long enough to see it come to pass. At least with ACA, when i retire next year, i will have options besides COBRA until i turn old enough to apply for medicare. Thanks zeos3 for the post.