After hints that the rapid growth in health care spending was slowing, a report being released today suggests the brief reprieve has stalled and the soaring costs are likely to force more people out of the market. The Washington Post reported
Health spending by privately insured Americans rose 8.2 percent in 2004, virtually the same increase as the previous year, according to analysts at the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan research group.
More significantly, for the eighth straight year the growth in medical costs far outpaced the growth of wages — by nearly four times in 2004 — a trend that suggests more Americans will be unable to afford their health insurance, said the group’s president, Paul Ginsburg.
501derful.org
Man, this is a tough one. I guess this is just going to blow up to crisis proportions (arguably we’re there now) before there’s a mandate to do something. But I think it will take tremendous outrage by voters to change things. The Wash Post had an article this morning about how much the lobbying industry in DC has grown since 2000. The K Street croud has doubled to nearly 35,000 registered lobbyists. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101632.html