On Oct 30, 4:09 pm, wrote:
On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:42:13 -0700, Manster wrote:
Overall.......but what about the inflation rates in healthcare, housing,
etc. Some of those costs are just now starting to gain. In 1960
healthcare was only 5.1% of GDP, in 1985 it was 10.1%, 2003 had it at
15.3%....and estimates are that by 2013 it will be at 18.4%. In the last
40 years annual per capita costs for healthcare have gone from $143 to
$5670.

Just imagine how expensive it will be when it is "free"

The problem is most people with great insurance today (namely big
union employees) do think health care is free. They pay their measly
$50 co-pay when they go to the doctor and they forget the rest. IOW
they never bother to ask the price when they go to the doctor or need
a procedure. When I needed a colonoscopy on my self-pay HSA I called
a few hospitals to get their prices, none of them could/would tell me
the price. Some even laughed at me and wondered why I need to know
that (because I'm paying out of pocket I exclaimed). The politicials
should COMPEL and REQUIRE hospitals to publish their prices publicly,
then we'll see real changes when people actually start asking them
what their price is and the medical community realizes it has to beat
the competition to stay in business. Right now the health care
"market" is not really a market, because real markets have open price
disclosure with customers shopping for value.