Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2016 09:46 -0400
We have been covering the consumption tax, pardon, endless spending black hole that is Obamacare for over a year, so we doubt it will come as a surprise to anyone that in 2015 healthcare was the second biggest use of US consumer funds, soaking up a record $1.9 trillion in real dollars, and more importantly for US economic “growth”, the single biggest source of incremental spending by nearly a factor of two.
Incidentally, with spending on healthcare (courtesy of the Supreme Court’s Obamacare tax) soaring, while outlays on the traditionally most consumption-intensive category, housing and utilities, going nowhere for the past several years, it is only a matter of 2-3 quarters before Healthcare surpasses Housing as the biggest use of American cash.
Putting this in context, a recent report from Freedom Partners Health found that health insurance premiums have increased faster than wages and inflation in recent years, rising an average of 28 percent from 2009 to 2014 despite the enactment of Obamacare, or rather “because of.” Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law on March 23, 2010, and Wednesday is the law’s sixth anniversary.
So, without further ado, this is what drove American consumer spending in the officially concluded, for GDP purposes, 2015. We show this just in case there is still any confusion why US households are unable to channel more spending into “discretionary”, non-mandatory purchases unlike Obama’s “health insurance” tax, pardon, noble venture.
Thanks for the info; vote Trump.
ObamaCare is nothing but a federal tax imposed on productive people.
I’m still waiting for my tax accountant to tell me how much I owe .After I lost my insurance do to Obama care I haven’t had any. He said it could be as high as 2500 dollars .That’s still cheaper then buyinsurance.
bb’s accountant “…said it [the Obamacare penalty – er, tax…] could be as high as 2500 dollars .That’s still cheaper then buy[ing] insurance.”
And it’s paid to Obozo’s I.R.S. WITHOUT GETTING YOU ANY VALUE WHATSO-FUCKING-EVER.
Heinlein put it perfectly in 1973: “Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed.”
Westcoaster promotes the same people that brought us this fucked up mess will run a single payer system different in ……….3……2…….1……
@Card: If you had a brain you would realize the problem with our healthcare system is PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES! Their position at the feeding spigot was guaranteed by Obamacare. Single-payer cuts out the “profit” and that’s why it’s working in every other developed country in the world! The only reason we don’t already have it here is POLITICS.
HaHaHa!!
I do have a brain and that’s why I know for a fact a single payer system will never ever work in the United States, politicians, lobbiest, and the free shit army.
If obamacare is number one in consumer spending, then it’s a large part of GDP and if it is then we are in trouble.
“The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the first quarter of 2016 is 1.4 percent on March 24, down from 1.9 percent on March 16. After this morning’s durable goods manufacturing report from the U.S. Census Bureau, the forecast for first-quarter real equipment investment growth declined from 0.9 percent to -1.4 percent while the forecast for the change in inventory investment in 2009 dollars declined from -$9 billion to -$11 billion. The forecast for real residential investment growth fell from 14.6 percent to 7.8 percent after Monday’s existing home sales release from the National Association of Realtors and yesterday’s new home sales and construction cost releases from the Census Bureau.
In other words, the U.S. economy is once again rapidly deteriorating, which is precisely what the Fed wants now as it needs every possible economic cover to justify its recent flip-flop decision to lower the number of forecast hikes from 4 to 2. Expect even more economic “weakness” in the coming weeks as the Fed remains concerned that the S&P is just not high enough or, said otherwise, bad news is once again bad news.”
@Card: You can’t see the forest for the trees. Here in the U.S. we’re spending about twice as much for healthcare as countries with single-payer. Any guesses as to why that is, DUH? GREED!
As far as the Fedgov’s GDP reports, it’s all bullshit made-up numbers. Don’t believe anything the Fedgov spits out. We’ve been in a Depression since at least 2008.
“If you had a brain you would realize the problem with our healthcare system is PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES! ”
Yes, and the government does so much better, as the VA gives constant testimony.
You’ll recall that the VA was held up as an example of how good government healthcare would be back during the Obamacare debate.
Westcoaster,
” Any guesses as to why that is,……..”
Yeah, because we use at least twice as much healthcare per capita here as they do.
And there is a good reason for it, an American can find he needs,say, a hip replacement and have it over and done with in a month or so at his convenience. In England you will wait an extended period on a waiting list before you are tended to, if you’re much over the mid fifties the official strategy is to put you off as long as possible in the hope that you’ll die before your operation gets scheduled and done (yes, you can read the news there and find that reported in it from official sources).
How much do you think those socialized countries spend on the very expensive treatments for such things as “Restless Legs Syndrome” compared to us?
Here’s an article from a little over two years ago that reflects the health care conditions in one of the best countries in Europe: http://www.thelocal.se/20140117/hospital-queues-tied-to-insurance-trend.
And that was before their current Islamic invasion crisis, I can only speculate on what it is like now.
But maybe you should.
Years ago I was offered a job in Nuclear Medicine, in Houston (Baylor – St Luke’s). As part of the contract I would have received “free” health insurance (as did all their Medical Staff at that time), but ONLY for that Hospital Group. So, if I wanted to travel and see a bit more of the Country, I’d have to take out my own Health Insurance policy. In combination with their “less than generous” Annual Leave allocation, I decided to give the US a pass.
A surgical colleague, who had just returned from a stint in New York, was none too pleased by your system, and decades ago, the comment was “a Healthcare System set up for the benefit of the Insurance Companies only” – in the 1980’s. . . . . He also noted that in his six months in New York, he saw more trauma (gunshot) cases than in his one year in Belfast – almost all drugs / gangland related.
Seems things have not changed much – just become more expensive, so the Insurers can enjoy substantial luxury – “Someone” is paying for all this, and that “someone” is you.[img
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@ Phil
It may have to do with the absolute
overload of patients processed through the system. People demand
treatment, tests, medication and innumerable doctor visits. The younger
“disenfranchised” groups see the clinic as a day trip/amusement.
Dementia patients are bought in by family for “retesting” every few months,
apparently forgetting the extensive work-up and teaching done just weeks
before.
There had been (maybe still) such a growing plague of lawsuits against
doctors, medical personnel, hospitals, and clinics that MD’s ordered every
test imaginable, cya.
It is a mess out there!!
O care? makes it all worse for the providers mostly…and of course the ever ready
taxpayer. Insurance company? I don’t actually know how they are doing.
Pharma?..they are lying and stealing and harming. Constantly introducing drugs
that are worse than the previous generation, in many cases. Overpriced.
Most alternative physicians are outcasts. I hear some have been murdered.
We have a dishonest corrupt system.
Suzanna, You have said that you are/were a nurse…psych I believe. So, it’s not like you were an ER nurse, or were you ever? My point I wish to make is that with a single payer system there will be an increase in the number of patients in ERs for stupid shit like common colds, sniffles, sore throats etc. You name it. A true overload because it is free. Indeed, amusement/daytrip. Yes, corrupt. Someday I will speak of dealing with hospice when they took control of my Dad.. They are not all volunteers and wonderful people, oh no. Swiss Cheese with holes big enough for the rats to crawl through…Fucking Mouseville….
We sty, Hillary will make it all better. Chelsea said so.
Suzanna – the “System” here is no better, with “Patient Overload”” a completely normal thing unfortunately. We have plenty of VERY profit-aware “Nursing Homes” that are almost anything but, since the first sign of problems in their “Clients” and off to the ED they go.
Add in the very Australian “I’ve got RIGHTS, Mate”! mindset and the system (State AND Private) is heading for big problems, in a very few years.
The “Entitlement” mindset is VERY strong. “I expect to live at least as long as my Grandparents” is not an uncommon statement I hear, yet the lifestyles of my customers are far, FAR more sedentary than their Grandparents, whilst the daily calorie intake (thanks to all those Fast Food outlets strategically positioned), is much higher.
You and I know that we are living in a “Fat and getting Fatter”, “Inactive and becoming even less active” society, where walking a few HUNDRED metres is almost unthinkable. Most of my customers, let alone many colleagues / staff, would not, maybe could not even walk for one hour non-stop, except at a snails’ pace.
THIS is the problem. BASIC levels of fitness, in a Society where sedentary activity is rewarded, and where walking / cycling is regarded as strange (“why don’t you catch the Free Bus Service?”).
It will not end well.
Westcoaster, are you old enough to remember what health care was like when people paid out of pocket for doctor services, and had only catastrophic insurance?
Trump-End the D E A.End Obamacare.Gather up illegals dump them with 3 pesos back in mexi.Make mex build wall
Writes nkit: “My point I wish to make is that with a single payer system there will be an increase in the number of patients in ERs for stupid shit like common colds, sniffles, sore throats etc. You name it. A true overload because it is free.”
As a physician experienced in Emergency Medicine as well as primary care in the hospital setting, let me give you some idea how the average hospital or medical center can and does handle these “stupid shit” treatment demands.
Outpatient primary care (as opposed to specialty) clinics, both in-house – running parallel to the Emergency Departments and making use of the diagnostic and treatment services established for the E.D., but not on a “stat” basis – and as freestanding affiliate sites. Hell, I used to run such a clinic back in the ’70s.
This is the most cost-effective way to take the acute-care non-emergency pressure off the E.D.
However – and it’s a big goddam “however” – hospital administrators actually PREFER to have the “stupid shit” cases jamming up their Emergency Departments. This is because they can bill a shit-ton more for “emergency” care than they can for the sorts of routine family-doctor-type services a guy with my credentials can render in an outpatient clinic, even if that clinic is run on the same 24/7 schedule the E.D. must operate.
The incentives imposed upon the hospitals by government regulations are truly mind-fucking, with economic consequences about which you shouldn’t wonder except to consider: “How could those bureaucrats and politicians have possibly made it WORSE?”
That’d take some imagination, I assure you.
Unless, of course, you’re familiar with the Veterans’ Health Administration.