I think you misread that article........ (compare the blue bars to the orange bars)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton/ ... a441e96ad2
"Mike Patton ,
Contributor
I provide analysis on the economy, investing and financial planning.
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
One of the promises of Obamacare was that it would reduce health care costs. Since its passage on March 23, 2010, has this promise been kept? In this article, we’ll examine this issue by looking at the annual rate of inflation for the Consumer Price Index, compared to the inflation rate for health care.
What Causes Health Care Inflation?
Generally speaking, prices rise when demand increases relative to supply. Health care is no different. However, there are other forces that influence the cost of health care. One would be political decisions such as additional taxes and increased regulations can impact health care costs. An increase in lawsuits which influence the cost of malpractice insurance for medical practitioners are another factor.
For several years during the 2000s, health care costs were rising rapidly, causing concern among patients and insurance companies. According to the November 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the primary reason for the rise in health care costs between 2000 and 2011 accounting for 91%, was an increase in the price of drugs, medical devices, and hospital care. Since medical devices were one of the primary contributors to the rise in health care inflation, should Congress have eliminated the 2.3% medical device tax contained in the Affordable Care Act? This tax will be passed on to consumers and insurance companies, causing the price of medical devices to rise further. Rising health care inflation prompts insurance companies to raise premiums.
The following chart shows the percentage increase in overall inflation as measured by the consumer price index (all items) and health care inflation from 2005 through May 31, 2015.
As you can see, health care inflation has outpaced the CPI in each year except 2008. Moreover, in 2007, 2009, 2010, 2014, and thus far in 2015, the difference is quite significant.
CPI & Health Care Inflation 2005-2015
It seems that over-regulation, excessive taxation, and a few additional issues are the root of this problem. What can be done to reduce health care costs? Health care, like any other industry, needs competition to push prices lower. Unfortunately, because each policy must cover the 10 essential health benefits, insurance companies have no latitude to create innovative, customized policies. It reminds me of the original Model-T Ford. You could buy a Model-T in any color you desired, as long as it was black."
Den
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