Blinded by the Right — Literally

Robert Waldmann | March 28, 2017 7:13 am

Healthcare

Patrick Ruffini tweeted a graph showing a break in the trend of health care cost inflation with the ironic comment “The “Affordable” Care Act sure has bent the cost curve.” In the graph he posted, it is broken not bent.

ruffini2

h/t @ChrisDeLong_

The trick is that the graph starts in 1996 & includes college tuition and software, so the huge change looks tiny.

In comments, it is clear that other people can’t see what is right in front of their eyes (good thing the ACA covers eye exams).

Jon Chait helps out by graphing inflation not the price level and leaving out other goods and services with huge changes.

chaitonruffini

I just asked Fred. I look at the ratio of health care PCE chained indes to the overall PCE deflator. Chait shows a huge decline in overall inflation, which isn’t relevant. Here is an (admittedly annual graph) which sure looks bent to me

fredonruffini

Ideology prevents people from seeing what’s right in front of their eyes.

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