4 ms·
It needs to be inflation adjusted, and then you have to agree about which inflation measure (there are several, and the differences over 50 years are significan
by beagle3 9y ago
It needs to be inflation adjusted, and then you have to agree about which inflation measure (there are several, and the differences over 50 years are significant)
But you could sidestep all of that by comparing to other countries, non of which ever had a significant number of “small hospitals run by 1 doctor”; their expenditure as a percentage is mostly consistent through the years and about half as high as the US, with similar trends in education.
- maxerickson 9y agoPresumably the underlying data for the linked chart is already adjusted for inflation. And the index used doesn't matter all that much, it will be applied to both data series and various inflation measures aren't that different anyway. The higher administrative costs at US hospitals account for something like 3% or 4% of total US healthcare spending. A huge win if you take it all back and not any sort of solution to the cost problem.
- beagle3 9y agoDifferent inflation measures can diverge up to 1%/year, so at 50 years, the choice matters a lot. Also, things like "core CPI" get redefined through the years (in a way that almost always makes them lower) and other "hedonistic" adjustments are not universally accepted.