So
healthcare spending growth has hit a 53-year low, but how come your costs keep rising? That's an extremely good question,
answered in part by Sarah Kliff.
The Center for American Progress published a new report this month that gives the best answer I've seen to this question. It shows that no, the government isn't lying about slower health-care costs—they really are going up slower than they used to. But all those savings? They're not going to you, or me, or other consumers. They're accruing to the rest of the health-care system.
Part of what's going on here is that employers are benefiting—they're paying less in health insurance costs, and asking employees to pay more. Check out this chart:
They're also getting plans with higher deductibles. "Even after adjusting for inflation, the CAP analysis finds they have doubled from $1,240 for family coverage in 2002 up to $2,491 in 2013." One thing that this does, which does help contribute to slower rising health costs overall, is make people go to the doctor less because they can't afford or don't want to pay toward that deductible. In practice, a lot of people actually have employer-sponsored catastrophic health plans, useful to them only if they get struck with a serious illness or accident. And part of the reason they can't afford to meet those deductibles, the CAP report says, is because their salaries aren't keeping up with their health insurance premiums. In fact wages are going down.
Obamacare was a good start for healthcare reform, but it is just a start. There's an awful lot still to be done to make healthcare affordable and universal in this country.