Healthcare Spending
Spending on Healthcare as a Part of GDP
I realize I’m being impolite (Dean Baker), but we’re facing fascism and the NYT is saying things are clearly untrue and very detrimental to those of us who care about democracy. A piece on the problem of healthcare costs in the United States told readers:
“The Affordable Care Act, which became law in 2010, has been attacked since its inception for failing to constrain health costs, which are higher in the United States than in other rich democracies. But its expansion of health coverage to tens of millions of Americans who would otherwise lack coverage has made the law popular.”
This one deserves a Mt. Everest size WTF? Healthcare cost growth slowed sharply after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed. In fact, healthcare costs grew far less rapidly over the next decade than anyone projected as the linked piece in the article says clearly. Here’s the picture showing spending as a share of GDP since 2000.
So, where the hell does the NYT get off telling readers that the ACA was attacked for failing to constrain costs? Do the Trumpers pay the NYT to print crap like this? Does the best paper in the country have the most incompetent reporters and editors on the planet?
I’ll leave readers to come up with their own explanations, but the failure of the NYT and other major media outlets to report competently on the economy has been a major factor in giving us Donald Trump. And as someone who cares about democracy, I am angry.
The New York Times Lies for Trump: Who Needs Fox News? Patreon Dean Baker
Hey, wasn’t Baker one of the guys who last year was angry at folks for not being as happy as his data said they should be? He should look on the bright side though as this is the NYT, not an influential outlet like Rogan or talk radio. More seriously though, GDP is an available parameter, but probably not the best one to use if you want to get at folks perceptions here, and since he is talking about “democracy”, I presume that’s his main concern. Maybe median household income or something that gets closer to what people might be thinking about when they look at their bills. Maybe it’s a good story for ACA. It could be. GDP sort of implies that healthcare always should get a certain slice. Most people don’t think that because $1T in data centers and new power generation comes into the GDP figures over time that healthcare cost baselines ought to be considered successfully restrained if they only get bigger by 18.5% of that. Maybe VC executives relate to it, but not many others will. Most pretty much will think ‘I have $X and my healthcare bills are $Y. Is that better or worse than a decade ago for me?’ Again, maybe that’s a good story for ACA. Baker should realize that the NYT isn’t being published for professional economists.