Some Numbers On Healthcare Costs

Today's American Thinker has a few numbers on the cost of healthcare and where the increases in costs have been coming from.  President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) released a study listing several benefits that would result from lowering the annual growth rate of health care spending by 1.5 percentage points, including:

•    Increase gross domestic product by 8 percent in 2030
•    Increase family income by $10,000
•    Reduce unemployment by 500,000 people per year

Just for the record, there is no basis for these numbers.  According to the article:

"All of the benefits that the CEA attributes to President Obama's health care plans are based on nothing but a political "goal."  The bogus study released by the CEA simply assumes that President Obama will reduce health care spending increases by 1.5 percent per year, then lists pages of resulting benefits for the unquestioning media to report."

Wow.  If I ran my household this way...   However, some of the study's numbers are accurate.  The study notes that the share of U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) devoted to health care almost doubled between 1980 and 2007.   During the same time frame, the share of health care spending paid for by the government increased by 10.1 percent, while the share paid for privately decreased by 7.3 percent.   This is an indication that when the government begins to pay for something it gets more expensive (for a further example look at the rise of college tuition in relation to the availability of student loans!).

The transferring of healthcare from the private sector to the public sector will have a negative impact on the income of all working Americans who pay taxes.  It will also slow down economic growth in general.  Rather than helping end the current recession, it will prolong it and make it more difficult to maintain a healthy economy in the future.