Re:Doctors, Revolt
by maxerickson on Sunday February 25, 2018 @08:14AM
(#16458773)
Presumably the underlying data for the linked chart is already adjusted for inflation. And the index used doesn't matter all that much, it will be applied to both data series and various inflation measures aren't that different anyway.
The higher administrative costs at US hospitals account for something like 3% or 4% of total US healthcare spending. A huge win if you take it all back and not any sort of solution to the cost problem.
Different inflation measures can diverge up to 1%/year, so at 50 years, the choice matters a lot. Also, things like "core CPI" get redefined through the years (in a way that almost always makes them lower) and other "hedonistic" adjustments are not universally accepted.
But you could sidestep all of that by comparing to other countries, non of which ever had a significant number of “small hospitals run by 1 doctor”; their expenditure as a percentage is mostly consistent through the years and about half as high as the US, with similar trends in education.