Graph: amazing, indisputable slowdown in health spending

[OKNancy]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/30/peter-orszags-graph-of-the-year-the-amazing-indisputable-slowdown-in-health-spending/

Peter Orszag’s graph of the year: The amazing, indisputable slowdown in health spending
BY WONKBORG
December 30 at 1:15 pm
Time has its "Person of the Year." Amazon has its books of the year. Pretty Much Amazing has its mixtapes of the year. Buzzfeed has its insane-stories-from-Florida of the year. And Wonkblog, of course, has its graphs of the year. For 2013, we asked some of the year's most interesting, important and influential thinkers to name their favorite graph of the year — and why they chose it. Here's Peter Orszag's.

The great deceleration in health costs continues, with nominal Medicare spending actually lower in the first two months of fiscal year 2014 than in 2013.



Rest at the link.

[On the Road]

1. Excellent News!

Next step: more progress toward bringing total healthcare costs down to levels in other first-world countries.

[JCMach1]

3. Not easily done under a monopolistic, capitalism in name only system...

sheesh bring on single-payer already...

Remember ACA is really DoleCare

[Scurrilous]

2. K & R

[riqster]

4. Friggin' awesome!

[postulater]

5. It's easy to keep costs down when people don't get the care.

I know of lots of people who don't go for appointments because of high deductibles and copays.

The above graph applies to Medicare. What about non-Medicare?

[CoffeeCat]

6. That is the primary issue that came to my mind...

So many people avoid the doctor because of soaring health-care costs.

And I'm not talking about the uninsured. I think a dirty little secret in middle- to upper-middle
class suburbs is that employers are providing inadequate health-care plans and that these plans
are becoming more expensive for the employees.

Our family is a good example. My husband is a network engineer. Prior to 2008, his employer was paying for this health insurance. We paid nothing. Our co-pays were $10. Dental and eye-exam coverage was included.

Now--we pay $500 for a plan that sucks. Our co-pays are $40. And now, when I go to the doctor, the lab work is considered an additional co-pay. One of last year's doctor visits cost me $160 in co-pays because I had to pay $40 for the general office visit, $40 to the lab where bloodwork was sent, $40 for a pelvic ultrasound and another $40 for tests being sent to another lab. It's incredible!

Furthermore, we have no dental or eye coverage. From what I hear, this is pretty typical. Employers are mandating that employees pay hundreds each month for coverage with higher deductibles and co-pays. $500 per month is a $6,000 pay cut. That's huge, when we've experienced layoffs that have included 20 percent salary cuts.

Between all of this, I feel as if we're drowning.