“Medical spending as a percentage of the national economy has increased by a factor of five since Medicare was put into place. Medical spending was approximately 4% of GDP in the 1960s...Medical spending is almost 20% of GDP today, or five times as high in percentage terms.”
“Medicaid is even worse because there no tax assessed to cover it. That is, Medicaid is a “pure” entitlement and last year spent approximately $400 billion.”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=234584
The time to fix this problem was 30 years ago. It’s simply a matter of time before the medical system collapses the economy.
“The United States spends $12555 per capita on health, more than the OECD average of $4986 (USD PPP).”
https://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/health-at-a-glance-United-States-EN.pdf
When the government starts to assume the mass payment of things (think college “education”), the industry that benefits quits thinking how to be most cost efficient and cost effective, and the cost of their products and services begins to exceed the inflation rates in other things.
I did an analysis some years back comparing the average annual tuition cost of college and the price of a gallon over gasoline over the period of 1970s to 2006. My analysis at the time showed that if the price of a gallon of gasoline had risen by an inflation factor equal to the cost of college tuition, gasoline would cost over $12 a gallon.
Government largess to any industry helps make that industry run based on, and seeking more of, that government largess more than anything else. It becomes a circle that just keeps expanding. The handouts help raise the cost, which is followed by requests for greater handouts, which is followed by greater costs, which is followed demand for greater handouts, ad infinitum.