Posted on 05/16/2016 9:57:27 AM PDT by lowbridge
The largest increase in consumer spending since gas prices have dropped, according to Markowska, has been on healthcare.
"In nominal terms, household spending on healthcare averaged 3.9% between 2010 and 2013," wrote Markowska in a note to clients Thursday.
"It began to accelerate in the first half of 2014 and has averaged at 5.2% since then. Importantly, this pickup in healthcare spending was not driven by higher costs; real spending in this category accelerated from 1.9% in 2010-2013 to 3.9% thereafter."
This would indicate that Americans have been not only been spending more because of increased costs, but also intentionally allocating more of their wallet to the sector.
To match the increased spending, the healthcare sector's labor market has also been booming.
"Employment data also corroborates this: as shown in chart 3, the healthcare sector produced about 240,000 jobs per year between 2010 and mid-2014," said the note. "Since then, it has averaged at 354,000/year and the sector is currently producing about 500,000 jobs annualized."
-snip
Now there are a few reasons for the increase, the most notable of which is the passage of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Markowska notes that the growth in real spending closely matches the 4% increase in the number of Americans with health insurance since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2012.
Part of the increased spending no doubt has to do with the number of people spending more on insurance who did not have it before, but also higher spending on drug prescriptions.
This increased consumer spending and labor availability is a net positive for the economy, according to Markowska.
(Excerpt) Read more at aol.com ...
Lying liars.
Can we get a ‘barf alert’ on administration propaganda?
Insurance is wildly more expensive (for miniscule and diminishing returns), and the authors believe this is a healthy thing for the economy.
Such a scatalogical sandwich they have proffered.
So let's stimulate the economy by turning a bunch of feral thugs loose. Sort of like what was done on the health care industry.
They’re spinning so hard I’m getting dizzy. Basically this is saying Obamacare is good because it forces people to throw more of their money away which stimulates the economy. Of course then they have no money to start/expand businesses, but “they didn’t build that” anyway.
Ha ha ha. Funniest line of day
They don’t try to hide the lies now.
So, we didn’t get the typical bump in consumer spending from low retail prices for gasoline, because increased healthcare insurance costs absorbed it, and this is a good thing?
So Obamacare drives costs up which results in an increase in spending, which is good for the economy? By that logic, why don't we double the price of gas or groceries, which also would increase spending? Liberal logic absolutely blows my mind sometimes.
I think you misspelled the source. It should be LOL.
Didn’t read it..... Obama cool aid drinkers. Dear God help us.
Well yes, if you are one of the millions of people getting jobs in the MASSIVE health insurance and Obamacare bureaucracy ... then this has been good for you.
If not, too bad for you.
Satire?
On the backs of middle class taxpayers.
So glad I’m covered under my employers plan, but I’m waiting for dramatic increases in the next open enrollment. The spin on this article is ridiculous. The rising costs is just another testament to how poorly anything touched by the government performs.
“This would indicate that Americans have been not only been spending more because of increased costs, but also intentionally allocating more of their wallet to the sector.”
So why would requiring Americans to spend more on health care be good for the economy. That increased spending comes at the cost of spending in other sectors. At most, a wash.
Exactly. The rest of us are stuck with the bill.
This is exactly how fascism works. When your company — or even your entire industry — cannot justify its existence in a market-driven economy, you simply force customers to do business with you through government mandates. Most people would be shocked to learn how much of our GDP is based on this kind of arrangement.
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