March 25, 2015

By Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

When I was a boy in the 1950s, health care was simple. If you got sick, you went to the family doctor. If you were really sick, you went to the local hospital and stayed until you got better or died. If you could afford it, you might go to Mayo’s for the latest in care. Most costs came out of a family’s pocketbook.
Today, especially as one ages, health care involves a cavalcade of trips to specialists, hands full of daily pills and robotic-driven surgeries to exorcise diseased growths. As relatively little of the costs now come directly out of our pockets, we insist on the latest and best care and technologies, and right away.
As a result, health care costs have gone through the roof and are expected to keep climbing.
According to the Center for American Progress, health care spending in the U.S., adjusted for inflation, increased by 818 percent between 1960 and 2010 while wages were going up just 16 percent. Per capita spending on health care is about $8,000 per year.
Economist William Baumol contends that we can afford the high costs of health care because of productivity increases elsewhere that bring the costs of other goods and services down.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.