Re:Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy...
by adventured on Saturday August 01, 2015 @04:07PM
(#9988492)
Yes, in fact healthcare in America used to be affordable.
The two big price jumps were in 1990-2000, and then 2000-now. The last one is what finally broke the private system in the US in terms of affordability.
It's easy to look up the facts and demonstrate where the costs began to soar:
Healthcare costs per capita have gone up four fold since 1990 roughly. Real household income in the US was about $47,000 in 1990. Today it's around $58,000 or so. That means people in 1990, with just around 20% less income, were spending 75% less on healthcare. Yes, it was affordable back then.
You can easily prove this another way: look up medical caused bankruptcies, and look at how they surge from the 1990s forward.
The two big price jumps were in 1990-2000, and then 2000-now. The last one is what finally broke the private system in the US in terms of affordability.
It's easy to look up the facts and demonstrate where the costs began to soar:
http://i.imgur.com/OXg7Nx7.png
http://i.imgur.com/R6MbaD9.png
Healthcare costs per capita have gone up four fold since 1990 roughly. Real household income in the US was about $47,000 in 1990. Today it's around $58,000 or so. That means people in 1990, with just around 20% less income, were spending 75% less on healthcare. Yes, it was affordable back then.
You can easily prove this another way: look up medical caused bankruptcies, and look at how they surge from the 1990s forward.