THIS MIGHT BE A STUPID QUESTION BUT………

So let me get this straight. The Commerce Department, a Federal Government Agency, reports that health care spending makes up 20.6% of an American family’s annual spending.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, another Federal Government Agency, reports inflation figures on a monthly basis. They provide a weight to each spending item in their CPI calculation. According to these boobs, medical expenditures only make up 7.716% of an American family’s annual spending. Ain’t that a hoot. The only thing funnier is their contention that medical expenses only went up 2.6% in the last year.

Which government boobs should I believe?

Oh yeah. Their job is to mislead, misinform, confuse, obfuscate, and lie. Don’t believe anything the government peddles. It’s nothing but propaganda, designed to keep you docile while you are fucked seven ways from Sunday.

Share of consumer spending on health care hits another record

Published: Mar 4, 2015 4:10 p.m. ET

 

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The percentage of money U.S. consumers spend on health care rose in 2014 for the third straight year to another record high, according to one government measure.

Some 20.6% of total consumer spending in 2014 was devoted to health care, including prescription and over-the-counter drugs, annual figures from the Commerce Department report on personal expenditures show. That’s up from 20.4% in 2013.

Health-care expenses has been rising for decades regardless of government efforts to control costs. The percentage of consumer spending on health care rose from 15% in 1990, topping 20% for the first time in 2009.

“Health care expenses do take up a big chunk of income,” noted Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at The Economic Outlook Group. He said the sharp increase in the number of people getting health insurance though Obamacare is likely to push total spending even higher.

Yet for now there’s little evidence that Obamacare, now in its early stages, has had a huge effect on health-care outlays. The rate of spending slowed after a sharp advance from 2000 to 2009, largely because of sluggish U.S. economic growth after the crushing 2007-2009 recession.

The total health-care figure from the personal-spending report also has its limits. The data is collected from a variety of public and private sources, for one thing, and some educated guesswork is involved in assembling the massive report.

What’s more, the health-care figure also includes the amount of money businesses spend on behalf of consumers. Not all the cash is coming directly out of the pockets of Americans, though companies often hold down annual wage increases or use other means to pass on rising health-care costs to employees.

 

Still, the trend is clear. Spending on health care continues to increase and it remains a big worry in the U.S. Nor is there much chance of a letup anytime soon, especially with baby boomers entering their retirement years.

With the health-care pie continuing to expand, consumers are paying the same or less as percentage of their spending on most other goods and services compared to 10 years ago.

Americans spend a smaller share of their money on cars and clothing, among other things. The percentage of money they spend on housing and going out to eat is basically unchanged over the longer run.

Not surprisingly, the only other major category to show a sustained increase in spending over the past 25 years is education. The share of money Americans spend on college has climbed to 1.59% from 0.9% in 1990.

 

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efarmer

“Health-care expenses has been rising for decades regardless of government efforts to control costs.”

Health-care expenses has been rising for decades BECAUSE of government efforts to control costs.

There, fixed it.

EF

robert h siddell jr
robert h siddell jr

Wow! Groceries, cars, clothing and restaurants all take less and less percentage of our pay but housing and education just a tiny little bit more. Even given hedonic adjustments, the Middle Class eating more at home and shopping at Goodwill; the ballooning welfare class paying virtually nothing for food, housing, child care, medical, education, transportation, telephones, computers, etc; and people dropping out of college broke, this still looks like bat shit crazy government statistics..

Kill Bill
Kill Bill

Obama/Pelosi care was never designed to reduce health insurance costs.

Kill Bill
Kill Bill

I once tried to read the Affordable Care Act.

I don’t know anyone who has. It is like boneless chicken mind boggling.

Rick Caird
Rick Caird

The analysis does not seem to consider that as our society ages, the amount of health care increases. Second, there are now treatment options that did not exist a couple of decades ago.

It is very difficult to get a fair comparison. It is more like saying cars cost a lot more than they did several decades, but aren’t there significant advantages in today’s cars over those from several decades ago?

stanley
stanley

Rick Caird says:

“The analysis does not seem to consider that as our society ages, the amount of health care increases

Should read: The analysis does not seem to consider that as our society ages asset extraction escalates.

There, FTFY.

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