On Healthcare – Strange Trend on Out of Pocket Costs
In my last healthcare post I introduced a commonly known fact – that healthcare costs in the US have escalated at an alarming rate as a percent of GDP. An interesting and somewhat surprising related trend is how the percentage of total costs individuals pay for their healthcare has changed over time. Take a look at the following chart from p25 of the RAND study I cited last time:
This is fascinating, as what the trend clearly shows is a US consumer spending more and more on healthcare while paying less and less % of total costs out of their own pocket.
And yet most people would tend to believe just the opposite. The reason is because consumption of health care here in the US is skyrocketing – so even though the % of out of pocket costs are down, the overall out of pocket costs are rising.
