A graph: National health care spending in inflation adjusted dollars as a percentage of GDP

[Fumesucker]

[andym]

1. why did costs not rise in the US between 1992 and 2000?

Were not the insurance companies interested in more profit? The medical device and pharma companies? The medical providers interested in higher salaries?

[Hestia]

2. They hadn't yet figured out a way to scam the public - then * happened...

[CurtEastPoint]

4. Gee...what was the spark in 1980 that sent this off into the stratosphere?

Could it be.... Reagan?

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Could be

[kenny blankenship]

9. "Between 1980-1993, nearly 374 acute care public hospitals were privatized,"

National Institutes of Health
Desai KR, Young GJ, Lukas CV; Association for Health Services Research. Meeting.
Abstr Book Assoc Health Serv Res Meet. 1999; 16: 126.
http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102194403.html

The focus of this study isn't the focus of this thread, but this statistic is the first sentence of the abstract.

[droidamus2]

8. Isn't it interesting

That since 1980 and the advent of King Ronnie Raygun that when the Repugs control the presidency health care costs sky rocket but for the 8 years of Clinton they declined.

[zipplewrath]

13. There are alot of balls in the air here

These are inflation adjusted dollars, and against GDP. So the relationship of general inflation to health care inflation will affect the graph. So will the affect of GDP on health care costs. The purpose of the graph isn't really to address the causes of increases, it is to show that regardless of the various causes, the US continues to out pace the rest of the world.(It isn't definitive by the way. It could reflect a sinking GDP more than anything else.)

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. Roughly 22% of our GDP is spend on healthcare and military.

Waste? There it is.

[harun]

6. Better to compare health care spending to avg. take home pay.

[Fumesucker]

7. Eh, I went with what I had..

I thought it was an illuminating graph, it could be better I'm sure but I haven't found the one you suggested yet.

[harun]

11. Yah, it would be hard to find.

[TexasObserver]

10. Yes, our for profit health care system is a disaster.

As the graph shows very well, our costs of health care have doubled in the thirty years since the Frist family made health care a business with political clout and no controls.

[bvar22]

12. The Sky is the limit.

And, in 2014, they will have MANDATED customers and MANDATED profits.

Welcome to the New American Century,
brought to you by the Republican Party and their economic partners, the DLC.