We're really past due the point of forcing the political class to live with the same expensive health care as the general population. There are too many health care industry apologists and deal-makers within the political class as it stands today and that has to change. Wouldn't it be interesting if Congress had to go out on the individual market and find its own health care just like real Americans. Then see how tolerant they are of 25% annual premium increases.
Instead of talking about, and implementing, lower tax rates in the US, the political class needs to be a lot more serious about health care. Obamacare is a start, but it really doesn't go far enough. What good are middle class tax cuts when health care costs continue to explode, and eat up any extra money working families might see from decreased taxes? In essence, the GOP is cutting taxes so families can afford to pay even more to the over-priced health care industry. And maybe that was the Republicans' plan all along.
Fleeced again.
Higher prices charged by hospitals, outpatient centers and other providers drove up health care spending at double the rate of inflation amid the weak economy -- even as patients consumed less medical care overall, according to a new study.
Prices rose at least five times faster than overall inflation for emergency room visits, outpatient surgery and facility-based mental health and substance abuse care from 2009 to 2010, says the report by the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonpartisan research group funded by insurers. Prices declined in only one category: Nursing home care, which saw a 3.2 percent drop in the cost per admission.
One of the areas with the fastest growing spending, meanwhile, was children's medical care.
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