Health care inflation

[GratefulCitizen]

The consequences of "free" and subsidized health care.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stor...hospitals.aspx

Money isn't real.
Goods and services are real.

The answer isn't spending.
The answer is to increase the rewards/lower unnecessary barriers for healthcare providers.

Giving "free" money to healthcare consumers increases demand.
Without a commensurate increases in supply, it will only raise the price.

Question to any healthcare professionals out there:
How much of the profession has been "captured" by unnecessary regulation?
(Effectively funneling rewards to crony capitalists/bureacracies rather than those who actually do the work)

[Flagg]

I was just looking at some proprietary private health insurance price index charts the other day using Kaiser and CMS.gov data.

Some scary historical stuff:

EXCLUDING uninsured, government admin, out of pocket, but including Medicare/aid

70-71 up 35%

80-81 up >20%

90-91 up >10%

02-03 up >10%

12 up >12% and going straight up from here by the chart

EVERY year from 1970-2012 up >4%, with only 2 years that low, the rest higher with quite a few quite a bit higher than "just" 4%.

Funny chart...from left(1970) to right(2012) it looks like a ball bouncing down the stairs with 4 big but progressively lower bounces.

2012 is the 5th bounce that looks to break the trend higher though

Sorry I don't have permission to share the chart but it's from a reputable source.

Chart owner(fella over at www.nowandfutures.org )seems to think we are going to push a good bit higher by the look of things.

[Pete]

Interesting that I received a letter in the mail yesterday.

Now that D2 is a college grad - and turns 23 this fall she will be off my Tri Care.

But - the letter stated she will then be eligible for the Tri Care Youth policy up until 26.

Wife is to call and see what the fee will be for a healthy 23 year old female.

[1stindoor]

Originally Posted by Pete

Interesting that I received a letter in the mail yesterday.

Now that D2 is a college grad - and turns 23 this fall she will be off my Tri Care.

But - the letter stated she will then be eligible for the Tri Care Youth policy up until 26.

Wife is to call and see what the fee will be for a healthy 23 year old female.

As I'm about to retire...dropping my packet on the first...I'd be interested to see what that cost will be as well.

[afchic]

Originally Posted by Pete

Interesting that I received a letter in the mail yesterday.

Now that D2 is a college grad - and turns 23 this fall she will be off my Tri Care.

But - the letter stated she will then be eligible for the Tri Care Youth policy up until 26.

Wife is to call and see what the fee will be for a healthy 23 year old female.

You are going to choke when then tell you the cost. We looked into the same thing for my son when he turned 23 and we were quoted approx $450/month for him to stay on my Tricare.