IS THERE REALLY MEDICAL AND HEALTHCARE COST INFLATION?

NO: NOT MUCH.

REPEAT: THERE IS VERY LITTLE MEDICAL AND HEALTHCARE INFLATION.

Sure, sure, sure: healthcare costs have gone UP AND UP AND UP.

But so has the quality of the care.

If you want the SAME QUALITY of care you had in 1970, it would not cost much more now than then.

But if you want STATE OF THE ART HEALTHCARE, THEN YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT.

Car's are better now than they were in 1970. It would be STOOOOOOOPID to compare the price tags of a 1970 "Datsun" to a 2008 Nissan and then say because the former was $6000 and the latter $25,000, that "the cost of a car has gone up more than 4x greater!"

If you want a 1970 Datsun it might cost you LESS than $6000 today, and be a crappy, less safe drive.

The same is true of most healthcare expenses. We pay more for INFINITELY BETTER CARE WITH BETTER RESULTS.

Let's stop whining about costs and be grateful we have a GRRRREAT medical industrial complex.

Let's not kill the golden goose by taxing the crap out of the economy, by taxing the crap out of businesses, or by shackling the pharmaceutical industry with price controls.

Which is what the Democrat would do to us.