On Oct 7, 2009, at 1:28 PM, Chuck Loucks wrote:
> Sorry about the way I posed the question. My intent was to ask what
> extra benefits the
> US people get with all the extra money spent on health care (you
> pointed out that the household share of health care has gone from 3%
> to over 11% of GDP from 1960 to today.)
Ah, thought you meant higher ed.
I suppose we all live longer, so there's some benefit there. But a fourfold increase, even if you adjust for an aging population, has to include a vast share of pure inflation. As I recall, the inflation has come from all aspects of the health biz - drugs, salaries, hospital fees, everything. One example: salaries in health were about 30% below the national average in 1960 - now they're about par.
Doug