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hoping I recall right, but I thought you mentioned you were a physician or something similar, hoping to get insight but here is my observation of "medical cost"
the cost isn't really "higher" than 50 years ago, at least not for the things that were performed 50 years ago. like the 2017 car has more "features" than the 1960 car, the price that goes into the "features" add up.
cost of medical treatment for the same disease/disorder hasn't changed if you exclude "new" techniques/drugs/etc
but there are new treatments because people want a 90-99%% success rate and not 70-80%... that push for the last 10-20% is what drives cost up because... well, things are already "efficient" and to push it more you get less return in general
add in costs for lawsuit/liability prevention, medical costs are higher
but education is the same, we try to cram more information into people of the same age, again back to less return on efficiency after hitting a certain point. to make education more affordable, people need to expect to learn what they did back in 1960 then spend decades learning new stuff on the job, or spend longer time in school and enter the work force at an older age. right now, they want to cram everything in and get out of college at 22, and get for a job that in 1960 would have the knowledge of a masters/Phd or someone with 5 years of work experience. the general science classes teach what the PhDs were learning about in 1960 from Dna to electronics to chemical synthetics. we get all that in high school today
Overall HC costs are higher because of so many new technologies for so many more people. Especially seniors.
Aging demographics. And now we have so many more seniors who each have multiple medical/surgical conditions. Medically/surgically speaking we can do so much more for so many more conditions.
Without this I'd have been dead 2003. My wife 2004, then 2008, then 2011, then twice this year for two different and unrelated medical/surgical happenings.
You will rarely see or hear anything about the value of all this improvement in health, happiness, family, security and life. Dollar or non-dollar terms, IMO it is absolutely humongous. Speaking as a long time doc and patient. And if you don't appreciate that then you are either young or healthy or both. And your own time will come...
Oil/gas so low as to be almost unbelievable. Especially as compared to the '70's.
Medical care has been rising for a very long time now. Nothing to with the crash or QE.
Yes it does. It's all the same thinking. Pure greed. I saw where Joe Manchin was upset that people went after his daughter as the head of Mylan Pharmaceuticals. People have every right to do that and it has nothing to do with Joe. They are the ones that hiked the price of the epi-pen to unjustifiable proportions AND as we now know helped fuel the opiod epidemic. They want to profit off both sides of the equation.
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10% for some items for sure. Housing in some locales for sure. Stock equities for sure. Not general though.
And the reasons are that the general demands are still not so robust. And energy is so down. Employment is continually improving, and demands will eventually catch up. One big hedge has been online shopping. So many assorted things I buy so much cheaper, especially in bulk. And along with that money savings - time and energy savings.
10% is not so far off. I don't know your age or experience, but up to now this is nothing like the '70's, early '80's.
Employment is up but the jobs are very low paying. That's why demand is not so robust. The markets are so high not because they are working but rather the "socialist" systems in place that is keeping it inflated.
Yes it does. It's all the same thinking. Pure greed. I saw where Joe Manchin was upset that people went after his daughter as the head of Mylan Pharmaceuticals. People have every right to do that and it has nothing to do with Joe. They are the ones that hiked the price of the epi-pen to unjustifiable proportions AND as we now know helped fuel the opiod epidemic. They want to profit off both sides of the equation.
Employment is up but the jobs are very low paying. That's why demand is not so robust. The markets are so high not because they are working but rather the "socialist" systems in place that is keeping it inflated.
We save huge huge moneys with generic drugs. Easily offsets the few outrageous.
I don't expect to see much wage inflation because of tech and global. That's why I think there will have to be new central moneys/benefits created for the middle class.
We save huge huge moneys with generic drugs. Easily offsets the few outrageous.
Sorry, why does it have to be either or? Because we allow generic drugs we have to offset that by allowing the drug companies to get people addicted to their drugs?
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I don't expect to see much wage inflation because of tech and global. That's why I think there will have to be new central moneys/benefits created for the middle class.
The complaints with Mylan have little to do with wages.
Oil/gas so low as to be almost unbelievable. Especially as compared to the '70's.
Medical care has been rising for a very long time now. Nothing to with the crash or QE.
10% for some items for sure. Housing in some locales for sure. Stock equities for sure. Not general though.
I'm not sure why you believe so. Using the same methodology that was used to determine the rate of inflation via the CPI in the 1980s, we're currently at 10%/year inflation rate and have been hovering at that rate since 2009.
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10% is not so far off. I don't know your age or experience, but up to now this is nothing like the '70's, early '80's.
The inflation rate peaked at 15% in 1981, and hovers now at about 10%.
Oh, and BTW... has anyone noticed that ice cream cartons are no longer 2 quarts? They're 1.5 quarts with higher prices. Campbell's condensed soups? Used to be 15 ounce cans. They're now 10.5 ounces (with the same directions to add 1 can of liquid) and the prices have increased. Some pasta brands have gone from 16 ounce packages to 12 ounce packages, and again, at higher prices.
I'm willing to bet that most people don't know the shrinking product and higher prices type of inflation is going on because, really? How many people actually compute price per ounce, etc.? I do, but I'm a mathie.
Overall HC costs are higher because of so many new technologies for so many more people. Especially seniors.
Aging demographics. And now we have so many more seniors who each have multiple medical/surgical conditions. Medically/surgically speaking we can do so much more for so many more conditions.
Without this I'd have been dead 2003. My wife 2004, then 2008, then 2011, then twice this year for two different and unrelated medical/surgical happenings.
You will rarely see or hear anything about the value of all this improvement in health, happiness, family, security and life. Dollar or non-dollar terms, IMO it is absolutely humongous. Speaking as a long time doc and patient. And if you don't appreciate that then you are either young or healthy or both. And your own time will come...
right, so why are people angry over medical costs?
if you are improving/extending lives, it does need to cost something... why are people saying that medical costs raising is bad when they expect those things in return
I dont find the costs of the medical services I use to be a bad expense, it's all those extras that come with the insurance plans that I disagree with. I'd be fine with an "a la carte" plan/cash for service instead of insurance outside of catastrophic (using high deductible). But I may just make enough where I can "self" insure/young enough to not need many services.
maybe higher costs will change my views as I age, but I don't find medical costs to be that expensive (in terms of i find them reasonable for what I get)
Why should the poor have to continue to pay to prop "capitalism" up?
No one is making them do so. They can stop buying unnecessary "wants" any time they wish. For example, they have the highest rate of cigarette smoking. That's unnecessary cost PLUS highly levied taxes.
Sorry, why does it have to be either or? Because we allow generic drugs we have to offset that by allowing the drug companies to get people addicted to their drugs?
The complaints with Mylan have little to do with wages.
No not wages, big big business profits.
But if you have medical conditions require multiple meds, you probably save overall with your generics.
Some outrageously priced drugs are specialty, with huge development costs and few recipients. Like some chemos/genetic.
My wife's Car-t could eventually have a price tag of $320+K. We think she won't need it. If she does, at this point it would be free to us. $320K is not far off her current treatment.
right, so why are people angry over medical costs?
if you are improving/extending lives, it does need to cost something... why are people saying that medical costs raising is bad when they expect those things in return
I dont find the costs of the medical services I use to be a bad expense, it's all those extras that come with the insurance plans that I disagree with. I'd be fine with an "a la carte" plan/cash for service instead of insurance outside of catastrophic (using high deductible). But I may just make enough where I can "self" insure/young enough to not need many services.
maybe higher costs will change my views as I age, but I don't find medical costs to be that expensive (in terms of i find them reasonable for what I get)
Simply because almost everyone talks about price/cost, never the benefits.
I'm not sure why you believe so. Using the same methodology that was used to determine the rate of inflation via the CPI in the 1980s, we're currently at 10%/year inflation rate and have been hovering at that rate since 2009.
The inflation rate peaked at 15% in 1981, and hovers now at about 10%.
Oh, and BTW... has anyone noticed that ice cream cartons are no longer 2 quarts? They're 1.5 quarts with higher prices. Campbell's condensed soups? Used to be 15 ounce cans. They're now 10.5 ounces (with the same directions to add 1 can of liquid) and the prices have increased. Some pasta brands have gone from 16 ounce packages to 12 ounce packages, and again, at higher prices.
I'm willing to bet that most people don't know the shrinking product and higher prices type of inflation is going on because, really? How many people actually compute price per ounce, etc.? I do, but I'm a mathie.
You and I are not too far off with our opinions. I would say the past 10 years has been on the order of 5%. Nominal. 10% at times on the high side in your experience would not surprise me.
Of course everyone's experience and actual inflation will differ. Very locale and life style dependent.
I just bought a '1/2' gallon of Safeway Chocolate this week. I'll have to remember to look and see if it's smaller.
IMO standard of living is the most important point. Hard to quantify, but more important than numbers.
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